Mammoth Skeleton Found Nearly Intact In Los Angeles

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The pelvis bone of a mammoth nicknamed 'Zed' found at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles is shown in this publicity photo released to Reuters February 18, 2009.


(Karen Knauer/
Page Museum/
Handout/Reuters)

[Bianca]

                                 Mammoth skeleton found nearly intact in Los Angeles






Dan Whitcomb
– Wed Feb 18, 2009
LOS ANGELES
(Reuters)

– The nearly complete skeleton of a massive Columbian mammoth who died during the last ice age has been dug out of a construction site near the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown Los Angeles, a remarkable find even in the fossil-rich area, scientists said Wednesday.

The mammoth, dubbed "Zed" by researchers at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, likely died in his late 40s some 40,000 years ago and was found near an unprecedented treasure trove of fossils that workers stumbled upon while digging the foundation for an underground parking garage.

"What makes this so special, so exciting for us is that Zed is a complete specimen," laboratory supervisor Shelley Cox said while showing off his dirt-encrusted, dinner table-sized brown pelvic bone for reporters.

"And he's really big compared to the mammoths we've recovered from La Brea before," Cox said. "The tusks are considerably larger than anything we had expected."

The Columbian mammoth was a species of elephant that became extinct near the end of the last ice age.

Included in the cache of fossils were some 700 specimens, including a large prehistoric American Lion skull, lion bones, bones from dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, juvenile horse and bison, teratorn, coyotes, lynx and ground sloths.

The discovery is expected to double the size of the museum's collection.

Though the La Brea Tar Pits, in the city's mid-Wilshire district, are the site of the richest ice age deposits in the world, many fossils pulled out of the dirt and asphalt-like muck are jumbled with other bones. Mammoths are a rare find.

Like all animals discovered at the site, Zed became stuck in a tar pit along a river bed and ultimately died of exhaustion or starvation.

Researchers believe his skeleton remained largely intact because soon after he died he was washed away by a flood and then covered by enough sediment, sand and debris to keep predators from making off with parts of the carcass.

They estimate his skeleton is 80 percent complete, missing only a hind leg and a vertebrae. While most mammoth tusks, which are made up of fragile material called dentine, are only found in small chunks, Zed's are intact and a remarkable 10-feet long.

Examination of Zed's bones shows he was between 47 and 49 years old, suffered from arthritis and had broken three ribs during his lifetime, possibly in fights with other mammoths.

Carbon dating is expected to show he lived between 38,000 and 42,000 years ago and had long lain under a department store parking garage.

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Volunteers work on the pelvis bone of a mammoth nicknamed 'Zed' found at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles
in this publicity photo released to Reuters February 18, 2009.

(Karen Knauer
/Page Museum
/Handout/Reuters)

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Shelley Cox, laboratory supervisor at the Page Museum in Los Angeles, holds the heel bone of a mammoth nicknamed 'Zed' found at the La Brea Tar Pits in this publicity photo released to Reuters February 18, 2009.


(Karen Knauer
/Page Museum
/Handout/Reuters)

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Trevor Valle, an assistant lab supervisor cleans a portion of a 10-foot-long Colombian mammoth tusk at the Page Museum lab at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles on Wednesday Feb. 18, 2009.

Researchers discovered 16 fossil deposits under an old parking lot next to the tar pits in 2006 and began sifting through them last summer.

The mammoth remains, including 10-foot-long tusks, were in an ancient riverbed near the fossil cache.


(AP Photo/
Damian Dovarganes)

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Andrea Thomer, left, Page Museum excavator and Michelle Tabencki, a volunteer excavator work on a fossil cache deposit outside the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles on Wednesday Feb. 18, 2009.

Researchers discovered 16 fossil deposits under an old parking lot next to the tar pits in 2006 and began sifting through them last summer.

The mammoth remains, including 10-foot-long tusks, were found in an ancient riverbed near the fossil cache.


(AP Photo/
Damian Dovarganes)

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Volunteer Herb Schift removes tar from a North America lion's skull at the Page Museum lab at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles on Wednesday Feb. 18, 2009.

Researchers discovered 16 fossil deposits under an old parking lot next to the tar pits in 2006 and began sifting through them last summer.

The mammoth remains, including 10-foot-long tusks, were in an ancient riverbed near the fossil cache.


(AP Photo/
Damian Dovarganes)

[Bianca]

             






Trevor Valle, an assistant lab supervisor, cleans a 10-foot-long Colombian mammoth tusk at the Page Museum lab at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles on Wednesday Feb. 18, 2009.

Researchers discovered 16 fossil deposits under an old parking lot next to the tar pits in 2006 and began sifting through them last summer.

The mammoth remains, including these 10-foot-long tusks, were in an ancient riverbed near the fossil cache.


(AP Photo/
Damian Dovarganes)

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                    Nearly intact skeleton of mammoth found at Los Angeles construction site






By Tricia Escobedo
CNN
Feb. 19, 2009
     
-- He had a rough life during the Ice Age, walking around with a couple of broken ribs and a possibly cancerous lesion on his jaw before dying at a young age.

 
Assistant lab supervisor Trevor Valle discusses the teeth and lower jaw of Columbian mammoth fossil "Zed."

 1 of 3  Now, at least 10,000 years later, visitors in Los Angeles, California, can see the remains of "Zed," a Columbian mammoth whose nearly intact skeleton is part of what is being described as a key find by archaeologists at Los Angeles' George C. Page Museum.

Zed was discovered at a construction site in the heart of Los Angeles. An earth mover helping to build an underground parking garage near the L.A. County Museum of Art uncovered the mammoth's skull, according to project director Christopher Shaw.

"The skull was hit and shaved off ... by a scraper," Shaw told CNN Thursday. "We don't know just how smashed up it is, but it's fairly intact because it's a huge jacket we put it around."

The mammoth's fossil was among 16 deposits at the site that archaeologists wrapped, along with the surrounding dirt, in plaster jackets, creating 23 boxes weighing between 5 and 53 tons that were then lifted out intact.

The construction was being monitored by an archaeological consulting firm because the site is so close to the La Brea tar pits -- an archeological site that has yielded 100 million bones belonging to 300 species of mammals and birds.

Construction on the parking garage began in 2006, but it took two more years for all the recovered materials to be handed over to researchers at the Page Museum, who began analyzing the various fossils in June, Shaw said.

"It's very exciting for us because each one of these ... could be different ages in the past 10,000 to 45,000 years," Shaw said.

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John Harris, the head curator of the Page Museum, publicly announced the finding of "a whole new treasure trove of fossils" on Wednesday. He described it as "the most important discovery" for the museum "of the last 90 years."

Shaw said the announcement was made to "create interest" in the museum's discovery.

Among the most interesting items is likely to be Zed, who is believed to have died in his late 40s. Mammoths are thought to have had an average lifespan of about 60 years.

Not all of Zed's remains have been cleaned off and analyzed.

"Right now we have opened the plaster jacket of four sections that were excavated, including vertebrae and ribs and pelvis, one tusk and the lower jaw," Shaw said. "It will take another six to 12 months to open everything."

Shaw said both of Zed's tusks were found intact, which is very rare.

"Previously, we've found mammoths but the tusk material was very poorly preserved," Shaw said. "It's very exciting to us to have these two complete, beautifully preserved tusks."

The excitement generated by Zed and the rest of the archaeological find could help boost the Page Museum's attendance and funding, which is key as many museums are seeing their attendance dry up during the recession.

"The cleaning of Zed can be viewed inside the museum inside the 'fishbowl' -- a windowed area -- as parts of his bones are being cleaned," Shaw said. "So people come to see us and we've constructed small exhibits. It will attract a lot of people and that will help our funding situation."

Researchers hope to have the entire skeleton on display by next year.

Shaw said it is unique to have such a major fossil find in the heart of an urban center like Los Angeles.

"I've always said we're kind of spoiled here in Rancho La Brea," he said. "It's not like going to the Gobi Desert where you can't take a shower for weeks."

While the process of cleaning and analyzing the fossils is very intricate and time-consuming, Shaw said it is a rare experience for researchers to come in to work and not know what they will discover that day.

"Every day we come to work, we're uncovering things that haven't seen the light of day for 40,000 years," he said. "It's an exciting thing that we're doing just that."