LAS VEGAS (AP) - A northern Nevada man’s backyard tree-planting project has turned up bones that he and a researcher think might be from the Ice Age.
They think the artifacts from Tom Gordon’s yard near the Carson River also might be the first example of extinct helmeted musk ox ever found in the state, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
“I was the first person to see that thing in 11,000-plus years,” Tom Gordon marveled as he recounted the discovery for the newspaper. “Nobody else had messed with it.”
Paleontologist and Las Vegas Natural History Museum lab chief Steve Rowland is using radiocarbon dating to determine the exact age of the fossils. Rowland, also emeritus geology professor at the University of Nevada, plans to compare them with helmeted musk oxen bone specimens at the University of Utah.
Gordon said it all started when he dug up what looked like the bottom half of a horse jaw in early May.
He and his wife found bones in their Carson City yard before, but assumed the land once was part of a ranch. However, their daughter thought the jaw might have come from a dinosaur.
After seeing photos, Rowland and a graduate student traveled north and started excavating - thinking they were unearthing a bison or maybe a camel.
The excavation became a family operation. Gordon’s daughter, Brittaney Akel, brought her husband and children from Arkansas for a few weeks in May and June. They learned to brush soil from the fossils and create plaster casts to gently lift them from the ground.
Gordon’s land features soft soil deposited slowly over time. Less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) of sediment had accumulated atop the fossils over thousands of years.
“It’s exciting, but it does take a lot out of you at the end of the day,” Gordon said.
Rowland filled a trunk with fossils and left with a mystery about the discovery.
He said some remains were remarkably intact after close to 11,000 years.
Rowland is still working to confirm that the fossils are extinct Ice Age helmeted musk ox. He said he believes the bones came from at least four individual animals of the same species, and other Ice Age bones found nearby might be a type of deer.
His research revealed that musk oxen were widespread in the Midwest and used to roam the West, although no remains had been discovered in what is now Nevada.
The animals are believed to have been taller and more slender than modern musk ox, which can stand 5 feet (1.5 meters) at the shoulder. They may have weighed more than 900 pounds (408 kilograms).
Researchers think they became extinct because of climate-driven changes in vegetation. Moose and bison were better adapted to the new diet.
Rowland expects there are more fossils in Gordon’s yard and possibly those of his neighbors. He plans to return to Carson City in September to try to find them.
Both Rowland and Gordon said they’d like to see the fossils end up in a museum, possibly the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.
“That’s where they belong because that’s where these animals were living and dying,” Rowland said.
Gordon called the discovery a great experience, but added that he’s ready to finish his yard.
“It’s really unique … being able to find something as rare as they’re saying it is,” Gordon told the Review-Journal. “But I’ll tell you, the whole reason was to plant my trees, and my wife is still mad because I still haven’t finished the trees.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.