The Mammoth Excavation San Jose Mammoth home page

  DAY 1

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sandbags around the site
The site had been previously sandbagged to limit any more encroachment by water in the stream. The site was covered with a lot of water when we first arrived this morning, and some of the bones were nearly submerged. © 2005 UCMP		 a big pump is used to drain the area
The Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) turned on a serious pump upstream and drained the area. © 2005 UCMP		 Mark and Jenny prospecting
UCMP's Mark Goodwin and Jenny McGuire look for more bones upstream from the main site. © 2005 UCMP
new mammoth humerus
A mammoth humerus was uncovered in the newly exposed gravels near the pump. It's most likely another individual as it was found slightly below and upstream from the first locality. It has different preservation too, and might be from a larger individual. © 2005 UCMP		 cutting channels to drain the site
After the pump did its job, UCMP's Randy Irmis and Jenny McGuire remove sandbags and cut in small channels so the remaining water could drain before breaking for lunch. © 2005 UCMP		 Randy with the bones
While the mammoth's tusks are in pretty good shape, bone contacting them from the skull is very poorly preserved, broken up and weathered. Most of the bones look like they were exposed on the surface of a flood plain deposit judging by the sediments they're in (mudstone with no bedding or gravel). © 2005 UCMP
Jenny mapping the site
It's important to map the quarry in order to preserve information about how the fossils were found. © 2005 UCMP		 Jenny, Randy and Roger at the quarry
After lunch, Jenny, Randy and Roger Castillo (the site's discoverer) began to quarry around the tusks, the (possibly partial) skull, and the pelvis near the water's edge. © 2005 UCMP

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