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ENTIRE MAMMOTH TUSK IS MAJOR FIND

FOR TEXAS A&M-KINGSVILLE GEOLOGISTS

KINGSVILLE (Oct. 27, 1998) -- Geologists at Texas A&M University-Kingsville have stockpiled evidence about life in South Texas 13,000 years ago. However, one of the latest finds is extremely rare considering its location -- a strip mine along the Nueces River .

"Because the mine is a drag line operation, most of our finds are in pieces," said Ronny Thomas, geologic research lab assistant with the geosciences department. "We first discovered the end of the mammoth tusk sticking out of the pit. After closer inspection and a lot of careful digging, we were able to unearth the entire tusk, intact. This is an exciting find for us."

The tusk was carefully removed from the side of the pit. The hollow end was filled with sand and the entire tusk was encased in plaster, like a cast on a broken bone. It was placed on a large wooden pallet and lifted out of the pit with a crane.

The tusk is 10 feet long and with its plaster cast weighed about 500 pounds, he said.

The length of the tusk indicates the mammoth probably stood approximately 12 to 13 feet at the shoulders and tipped the scales at nearly seven tons, Thomas said.

By comparison, today's African elephant stands 10 to 11 feet at the shoulders and weighs around six tons.

In addition to the whole tusk, Thomas also found a piece, approximately one-third, of a second tusk, near the first. "We are uncertain at this time, if both tusks came from the same

mammoth. Maybe we will find the rest of him in there somewhere."

Thomas works almost daily on the tusk in his lab at Texas A&M-Kingsville, cleaning up the tusk and treating it with butvar resin which helps stabilize it.

Once a week, however, he makes his rounds at the mining location in Nueces County looking for more fossils that could tell another tale about past life in South Texas. "The employees of the mining operation know I visit once a week," Thomas said. "They put pieces aside for me that have been dug up by the drag-line or come up on the sorter. They look out for me because sometimes I work in dangerous areas. In return, I bring an ice chest full of cold drinks every time I visit."

Sea level in the area is 25 feet and most of the fossils Thomas finds are 20 to 30 feet below the top of the pit. "The first thing we learned about the depth is that sea level has changed considerably in the past 13,000 years," he said. "If these animals were living at that depth then the sea level must have been much lower than it is today."

Thomas' adventure at the strip mine location began four years ago when the drag line exposed a mammoth skull and the geosciences department was called in to investigate.

"We found one-quarter to one-third of a mammoth, including all of the skull, part of one tusk, all of a front leg and some vertebrae," Thomas said. "Since then we have found endless fossils including three different elephant cousins -- mammoth, mastodon and gomphothere."

The John E. Conner Museum on the Texas A&M-Kingsville campus is preparing to exhibit the mammoth pieces. "There are no museums, to my knowledge, south of Houston that has anything like this," said Hazel Mann, museum educator.

The fossils come from the late Pleistocene Period, which occurred 1.8 million to about

10,000 years ago. The last 100,000 years of the Pleistocene Period are known as the Wisconsinan glacial age.

"We have discovered 30 different extinct species that lived in this area up until 10,000 years ago," Thomas said.

"Many of these species are reflected in the mural in the Conner Museum including camels, small horses, bison and saber tooth tigers," he said. "However, we have found evidence of giant tortoise, sloth and armadillo, peccary, deer, antelope and tapir. We also believe a carnivorous bird called Titanus Walleri also lived in South Texas."

Thomas said 13,000 years ago South Texas was a dry savannah type area like many parts of Africa, which explains why these kinds of animals could live here. However, as the climate changed, they could no longer survive.

Thomas, who used to work in the oilfield business, loves what he does. "You never know when you might go to the pits and find something that could change history," he said. "Every day is a new adventure."

-TAMUK-