Snowmass Fossil Dig At Ziegler Reservoir Ends; Brings Ice Age Back To Denver

The largest fossil excavation project just wrapped up at the now infamous Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village. The excavation quickly unearthed a grand total of 4,826 bones over a seven week period, becoming the most significant fossil site in Colorado history and freezing a geographic chuck of the Ice Age in time.

Finds from the site will make their way to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to undergo a slow-drying process in an in-house lab meant to preserve and protect the fossils, which may take many months.

From the Snowmastodon Project press release:

• 74 large specimens in plaster jackets
• 49 tusks (29 upper jaw tusks and 20 lower jaw tusks)
• 34 mandibles (jaws)
• 23 skulls
• 20 pelvises
• 82 loose teeth

• 125 logs and numerous samples of peat, wood, leaves, and rocks

Next week the museum will host the "Ice Age Spectacular" to celebrate their Ice Age findings and display them for the first time. There will also be several touchable fossils near the preparation laboratory where the museum will be slow-drying their major finds.

Fossils discovered at the site were voted unanimously by the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District to be donated to the museum.

The National Geographic Society plans to feature the Snowmass Ice Age-finds on PBS as part of a NOVA special airing on PBS next year.

Upcoming events and activities:

Family Event: Ice Age Spectacular

Saturday, July 23, and Sunday, July 24
8 a.m.-noon (members only), 1-5 p.m. (open to all visitors)
FREE with admission
Celebrate the exciting discoveries and view fossils from the Ice Age site--on display for the first time at the Museum. Play games, make crafts, and check out the interactive show "Time Scene Investigation: Snowmass Village."

Fossil Preparation in Prehistoric Journey
Ongoing
FREE with admission
Watch as fossils from the site are prepared by staff and volunteers in the Schlessman Family Preparation Laboratory, near the exit of Prehistoric Journey. Also in the area, get the latest news from the dig site and visit the Mammoth Discoveries cart, which features:

• photos, video, and interpretive information about the Snowmass Village discoveries
• a volunteer facilitator to answer visitor questions
• real tusk fragments from Snowmass Village to touch
• peat samples from Snowmass Village
• touchable mammoth and mastodon teeth
• mammoth bone fragments

Evening Lecture: Snow, Mud, and Mastodons
Thursday, September 8
7 p.m., $12 for members/$15 for nonmembers
They battled snow, sleet, rain, heat, and massive amounts of mud to pull thousands of Ice Age fossils out of the ground. Now Kirk Johnson and Ian Miller, PhDs, will share all the latest "dirt" as they offer updates on the new discoveries, show off some of the spectacular finds, and explain what this project means to science and to Colorado.

Exhibition: Mammoths & Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age
Coming in Spring 2013
The Museum will host a touring exhibition from the Field Museum, featuring video installations, hands-on interactive displays, life-size models, fossil tusks and skulls--and even touchable teeth. The exhibition features a 42,000-year-old intact baby mammoth named Lyuba. Discovered in 2007 by a Siberian reindeer herder and his sons, Lyuba is by far the best-preserved mammoth specimen ever discovered.

Comments

[Mike Dennison]

02:53 PM on 07/11/2011

I was at the museum when they hauled a huge block of these fossils in. It looked like it was all encased in Plaster of Paris. Someone said we had to "wait for the mammoth" to go by before we could go through.

[Vijay Banga]

06:22 AM on 07/09/2011

Ice Age , Snowmass Village , Camels , Fossils , Ice Age Bisons , Ice Age Camels , Ice Age Colorado , Mammoths , Pleistocene ,all this and much more we keep on finding in a zillion places day in and day out.
Have we ever considered that more than 3.50 billion people do not get two meals a day and are turning into living fossils, who cares.
Do we spend so much to help them keep tied to a string called life. The answer is a big NO, NO, NO....

[lambdin1]

03:42 PM on 07/08/2011

Living in Denver I knew nothing of this dig. The only thing this city worries about or talks about is how is the skiing and how much the chair lift tickets cost this year! The only way it will ever get any notice here is if it screws up the skiing!

[pa30]

10:33 AM on 07/08/2011

Did erosive forces pile them up, or did they die as a group.Was this a site where Fremont Indians hunted and finally added to the animals extinction?Fascinating

[H P]

04:35 PM on 07/08/2011

I guess they all died in the biblical flood.. that must be the answer.

[Anne Mccormick]

01:17 AM on 07/14/2011

yes, that was what? 3,000 years ago! lol

[pa30]

08:04 AM on 07/08/2011

Biggest dinosaur in Aspen? WJC at the ideas Festival

[codemo]

03:43 PM on 07/09/2011

There were no dinosaurs involved in this story. The dinosaurs lived 100 million years ago, This site was estimated at being from 45,000 to 150,000 years old.

[Judanne Simpson]

05:06 AM on 07/08/2011

Why is the Ziegler Reservoir infamous? What terrible thing happened there?

[Laura Hopkins 1]

01:06 AM on 07/08/2011

I am so disappointed that I am going to be out of town the weekend of the DMNS exhibit! I can't wait for the NOVA program about it next year!

[Footwarrior]

08:16 AM on 07/08/2011

Keep an eye on the Science Lounge programs. I suspect they will one on the Snowmass finds later this year.

[pathenry]

12:59 AM on 07/08/2011

Amazing! They had "loose teeth" in the Ice Age too? So much for the healthy diet of the hunter-gatherers. ;-)

[James I Kirkland]

02:16 AM on 07/08/2011

Pre-dates man in North America. Who will not cross over from Asia for another couple hundred thousand years.

[Epotheros]

10:39 AM on 07/08/2011

Indeed the site pre-dates man, but the site is estimated to only be from 50,000 (the bones are radio-carbon dead) to 150,000 (from the known age of the glacial moraine that is underneath) years old. Hence it would be 35,000 to 135,000 years before humans arrived on the scene.

[Nicon]

12:01 AM on 07/08/2011

Maybe i am over/under medicated at the moment, but this is really freaking cool. Gona drag my niece to this exhibit for sure.

[JT HUNT]

11:28 PM on 07/07/2011

awesome

[FreedToChoose]

10:55 PM on 07/07/2011

Thanks to the Snowmass Water and Sanitation District for donating these treasures to the museum. Not too long ago they would have been bulldozed as fill. Still are is some areas.

[pa30]

09:40 AM on 07/08/2011

That was a long time ago, and they aren't donated.

[FreedToChoose]

12:04 PM on 07/08/2011

Maybe in Colorado, but not in New Mexico and Arizona, but it's so much better today.

[RefreshingTaste]

10:52 PM on 07/07/2011

Was there today, they used a large crane to lift a Mammoth fossil.
I find it odd they are stopping so soon, only a small portion of the res. was searched, maybe 15%, a lot of fossils are going to be left under water.

[Philimanjaro]

01:32 AM on 07/08/2011

They probably scouted everything else using ground radar. I highly doubt they'd just ruin thousands of artifacts because they didnt want to dig another hole.

[James I Kirkland]

02:21 AM on 07/08/2011

There is a huge area of fossils still there that will be preserved wonderfully for future generations if needed.
We have numerous site recording different ages and environments here in Utah that could be excavated for hunderds of years as new methodologies arise, but only if we protect them.