Through a wooly lens; investigations from a mammoth burial in Iowa

Phillip J. Kerr; E. Arthur Bettis; Richard G. Baker

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Abstract

Through a wooly lens; investigations from a mammoth burial in Iowa

Phillip J. Kerr, E. Arthur Bettis and Richard G. Baker

Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America, Vol.45(4), p.17

Geological Society of America, North-Central Section, 47th annual meeting

04/2013

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Abstract

Investigations sponsored by the Iowa Museum of Natural History have discovered the remains of three mammoths eroding from alluvium in a small tributary of the South Skunk River in southern Iowa. Coring, examination of excavation walls, radiocarbon dating, and macrofossil analyses are providing a preliminary picture of the paleoenvironment occupied by the mammoths and the processes responsible for formation of the fossil deposit. Excavations to date have recovered fossils from early Holocene alluvium that filled a plunge pool cut into an older terrace fill that apparently contains in-situ mammoth remains. The pristine condition of bone recovered to date and a lack of size or density sorting suggests a very short transport distance. An exposure of the older terrace fill and cores from the terrace surface adjacent to the excavation show a sequence of fine-grained late glacial alluvium separated from sand and gravel by an organic-rich zone that yielded a radiocarbon date of 13,120+50 B.P. Plant macrofossils recovered from the organic zone indicate a marshy area within a spruce forest. On-going investigations are focused on refining a sedimentary model for the site and determining the location of the in-place deposition of the mammoth remains.

United States

absolute age

alluvium

C-14

carbon

Cenozoic

Chordata

clastic sediments

cores

Elephantidae

Elephantoidea

Eutheria

Geochronology

Iowa

isotopes

Mammalia

Mammuthus

Plantae

Pleistocene

Proboscidea

Quaternary

radioactive isotopes

sediments

South Skunk River

southern Iowa

taphonomy

Tetrapoda

Theria

upper Pleistocene

vegetation

Vertebrata

Vertebrate paleontology

Details

Title: Subtitle: Through a wooly lens; investigations from a mammoth burial in Iowa
Creators: Phillip J. Kerr - University of Iowa, Department of Geoscience Iowa City, IA USA United States
E. Arthur Bettis
Richard G. Baker
Resource Type: Abstract
Publication Details: Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America, Vol.45(4), p.17
Conference: Geological Society of America, North-Central Section, 47th annual meeting
Publisher: Geological Society of America (GSA)
ISSN: 0016-7592
Alternative title: Geological Society of America, North-Central Section, 47th annual meeting
Language: English
Date published: 04/2013
Academic Unit: Earth and Environmental Sciences; Iowa Geological Survey; IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering
Record Identifier: 9984701803002771

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