Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:11:31.658Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, from the Wasatch Mountains of central Utah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

David D. Gillette  and
David B. Madsen
David D. Gillette
Affiliation:
Antiquities Section, Utah Division of State History, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City 84101
David B. Madsen
Affiliation:
Antiquities Section, Utah Division of State History, 300 Rio Grande, Salt Lake City 84101
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A nearly complete and well-preserved skeleton of the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) and a cranial fragment of a short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) were recovered from fossil lake deposits at 2,740 m, near the crest of the Wasatch Plateau, central Utah. The mammoth bones are reliably dated to between 11,500 and 9,500 yr B.P. and may be associated with a late Paleoindian occupation at the site. The mammoth and bear are part of a high elevation Huntington Canyon megafauna including mastodon (Mammut americanum), horse (Equus sp.), and bison (Bison sp.). The mammoth was an old bull with considerable pathology in the vertebral column, ribs, and legs. Pollen, plant macrofossils, insects, and dung associated with the mammoth suggest this megafauna occupied an essentially modern environmental setting after deglaciation of the Wasatch plateau.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , July 1993 , pp. 669 - 680
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agenbroad, L. D. 1984. New World mammoth distribution, p. 90–108. In Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G. (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions, A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Agenbroad, L. D., and Mead, J. I. 1986. Large carnivores from Hot Springs Mammoth Site, South Dakota. National Geographic Research, 2:508–516.Google Scholar
Agenbroad, L. D., and Mead, J. I. 1989. Quaternary geochronology and distribution of Mammuthus on the Colorado Plateau. Geology, 17:861–864.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, E. 1984. Who's who in the Pleistocene: a mammalian bestiary, p. 40–89. In Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G. (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions, A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Behrensmeyer, A. K. 1984. Non-human fracturing and surface damage in Miocene bones with notes on related taphonomic experiments. First International Conference on Bone Modification, Reno. Center for the Study of Early Man, Orono, Maine, Abstracts:3.Google Scholar
Davis, O. K., Agenbroad, L. D., Martin, P. S., and Mead, J. I. 1984. The Pleistocene dung blanket of Bechan Cave, Utah, p. 267–282. In Genoways, H. H. and Dawson, M. R. (eds.), Contributions in Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology: A Volume in Memorial to John E. Guilday. Special Publication of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, No. 8.Google Scholar
von den Driesch, A. 1976. A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Peabody Museum Bulletin No. 1. Harvard University, 135 p.Google Scholar
Elder, W. H. 1970. Morphometry of elephant tusks. Zoologica Africana, 5:143–159.Google Scholar
Elias, S. 1990. The timing and intensity of environmental changes during the Paleoindian Period in western North America: evidence from the fossil record, p. 11–14. In Agenbroad, L. D., Mead, J. I., and Nelson, L. (eds.), Megafauna And Man: Discovery of America's Heartland. The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota, Inc. and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, Scientific Papers, Volume 1.Google Scholar
Falconer, H. 1857. On the species of Mastodon and elephant occurring in the fossil state in Great Britain. Part 1. Mastodon . Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 13:307–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiorillo, A. R. 1984. An introduction to the identification of trample marks. First International Conference on Bone Modification, Reno. Center for the Study of Early Man, Orono, Maine, Abstracts:11.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1976. The chronology of paleoindian and altithermal cultures in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, p. 147–174. In Cleland, C. E. (ed.), Cultural Change and Continuity: Essays in Honor of James Bennett Griffin. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1988. Paleoindian subsistence and settlement during post-Clovis times on the northwestern plains, the adjacent mountain ranges and intermountain basins, p. 83–106. In Carlisle, R. C. (ed.), Americans Before Columbus: Ice-Age Origins. University of Pittsburgh Ethnology Monographs, 12.Google Scholar
Gillette, D. D., Haynes, C. V., Saunders, J. J., and Stanford, D. 1985. Preliminary report on the occurrence of Mammuthus columbi in Mora County, New Mexico, p. 48–50. In Lucas, S. L. (ed.), New Mexico Geological Society 36th Annual Field Conference: Santa Rosa–Tucumcari Region.Google Scholar
Gillette, D. D., and Madsen, D. B. 1989. A Late Quaternary mammoth from the Wasatch Plateau of central Utah. Symposium on Southwestern Geology and Paleontology, Museum of Northern Arizona, Abstracts:9.Google Scholar
Gillette, D. D., and Madsen, D. B. 1992. The short-faced bear Arctodus simus from the Late Quaternary in the Wasatch Mountains of central Utah. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 12:107–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. E. 1821. On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals. London Medical Repository, 15:296–310.Google Scholar
Guthrie, D. D. 1990. Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe. The University of Chicago Press, 323 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, R. M. 1980. Late Pleistocene plant fragments in the dung of herbivores at Cowboy Cave, p. 179–189. In Jennings, J. D. (ed.), Cowboy Cave. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 104, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Jr. 1991. Geoarchaeological and paleohydrological evidence for a Clovis age drought in North America and its bearing on extinction. Quaternary Research, 35:438–450.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1986. Spiral fractures and cut mark-mimics in noncultural elephant bone assemblages. Current Research in the Pleistocene, 3:45–46.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1990. The mountains that fell down: life and death of heartland mammoths. In Agenbroad, L. D., Mead, J. I., and Nelson, L. (eds.), Megafauna and Man: Discovery of America's Heartland. The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota, Inc. and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, Scientific Papers, Volume 1.Google Scholar
Illiger, C. 1811. Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium additis terminis zoographicis utriudque classis. C. Salfeld, Berlin, 301 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, P. L. 1988. The diet of Pleistocene proboscideans and its role in their extinction. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Program, 21:A378.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., and Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, New York, 443 p.Google Scholar
Laws, R. M. 1966. Age criteria for the African elephant Loxodonta africana . East African Wildlife Journal, 4:1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, G. E. 1990. New information on high-altitude mammoths, and on a prongbuck with supernumerary horns. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 10:32A, Supplement.Google Scholar
Lundelius, E. L. Jr., Graham, R. W., Anderson, E., Guilday, J., Holman, J. A., Steadman, D. W., and Webb, S. D. 1983. Terrestrial vertebrate faunas, p. 311–353. In Porter, S. C. (ed.), Late Quaternary Environments of the United States: Volume 1, The Late Pleistocene. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Madsen, D. B., Gillette, D. D., and Jones, K. T. 1990. High-elevation proboscideans and paleoindians along the eastern margin of the Great Basin. Twenty-Second Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Reno, p. 41.Google Scholar
Maglio, V. J. 1973. Origin and evolution of the Elephantidae. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 63:1–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P. S. 1990. Who or what destroyed our mammoths?, p. 109–117. In Agenbroad, L. D., Mead, J. I., and Nelson, L. W. (eds.), Megafauna and Man: Discovery of America's Heartland. The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota, Inc., and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, Scientific Papers, Volume 1.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Agenbroad, L. D., Davis, O. K., and Martin, P. S. 1986. Dung of Mammuthus in the Arid Southwest, North America. Quaternary Research, 25:121–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, W. E. 1971. Pleistocene vertebrates of the Los Angeles basin and vicinity (exclusive of Rancho La Brea). Los Angeles County Museum Science Bulletin, 10:1–24.Google Scholar
Miller, W. E. 1976. Late Pleistocene vertebrates of the Silver Creek local fauna from north central Utah. Great Basin Naturalist, 36:387–424.Google Scholar
Miller, W. E. 1987. Mammut americanum, Utah's first record of the American Mastodon. Journal of Paleontology, 61:168–183.Google Scholar
Moss, C. 1988. Elephant Memories. Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family. William Morrow and Co., New York, 336 p.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. E. 1988. A new cavity biota from northeastern Utah. Current Research in the Pleistocene, 5:77–78.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. E. 1989. New paleontological investigations at Blonquist Rockshelter, Summit County, Utah. Current Research in the Pleistocene, 6:77–78.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. E., and Madsen, J. H. Jr. 1983. A giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) from the Pleistocene of northern Utah. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 86:1–9.Google Scholar
Nelson, M. E., and Madsen, J. H. Jr. 1987. A review of Lake Bonneville shoreline faunas (Late Pleistocene) of northern Utah, p. 319–333. In Kopp, R. S. and Cohenour, R. E. (eds.), Cenozoic Geology of Western Utah—Sites for Precious Metal and Hydrocarbon Accumulations. Utah Geological Association Publication 16.Google Scholar
Oliver, J. S. 1984. Bone damage morphologies from Shield Trap Cave, Carbon County, Montana. First International Conference on Bone Modification, Reno. Center for the Study of Early Man, Orono, Maine, Abstracts p. 27.Google Scholar
Prokopovich, N. P., and Cooke, W. R. 1989. Vivianite in Little Lake Valley, Mendocino County, California. California Geology, January 1989:14–19.Google Scholar
Stafford, T. W. Jr. 1988. Accelerator 14C dating of late Pleistocene megafauna. Current Research in the Pleistocene, 5:41–43.Google Scholar
Stafford, T. W. Jr. 1990. Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions and the Clovis culture: absolute ages based on accelerator 14C dating of skeletal remains, p. 118–122. In Agenbroad, L. D., Mead, J. I., and Nelson, L. W. (eds.), Megafauna and Man, Discovery of America's Heartland. The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota, Inc., and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, Scientific Papers, Volume 1.Google Scholar
Stafford, T. W. Jr., Brendel, K., and Duhamel, R. C. 1988. Radiocarbon, 13C and 15N analysis of fossil bone: removal of humates with XAD-2 resin. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 52:2257–2267.Google Scholar
Western, D., and Lindsay, W. K. 1984. Seasonal herd dynamics of a savanna elephant population. African Journal of Ecology, 22:229–244.Google Scholar