C O N S E R V A N C Y
Field Notes SOUTHWEST—Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have excavated the skull and tusks of a mammoth that died more than 10,000 years ago on the Conservancy’s Lamb Spring Preserve south of Denver this summer. The mammoth skull was originally found by Smithsonian researchers in 1981 and reburied for later retrieval. Led by archaeologist James Dixon, the researchers recovered the ancient skull and took it to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where a mold and cast will be made. The museum also will have the skull on public display. A cast of the skull and tusks will be displayed at Lamb Spring next summer as part of an ongoing project to develop a museum at the site. “This site is exceptional because it has well-preserved bones of iceage animals in the spring deposits,” Dixon said.“And because it is located in the Denver metropolitan area, Lamb Spring provides unusual opportunities for public education and participation in science.” The excavation, funded in part by a $75,000 grant from the Colorado State Historical Fund and a $25,000 contribution from the Douglas County Historic Preservation Board, is part of a larger plan to develop Lamb Spring into a museum and education facility. Another grant from the Colorado State Historical
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CASEY A. CASS / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
Mammoth Skull Excavated at Lamb Spring
University of Colorado Museum and Field Studies instructor Paul Murphey (right) talks with graduate student Erin King (left) as classmates Andrew Ericson (foreground) and Amy Moe help excavate an intact young female mammoth skull from the Lamb Spring dig site southwest of Denver.
Fund was used to help purchase Lamb Spring. The site was discovered in 1960 by landowner Charles Lamb when he was digging a stock pond and came upon the mammoth tusks.
Shortly after the discovery, researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Geological Survey excavated the site and found the bones of several mammoths, bison, fall • 2002
