Article from Mathis Independent School District: Intermediate School Receives Thirteen Thousand Year Old Mammoth Vertebra Recovered Near Mathis 12/10/2008 http://www.mathisisd.org/news_details.aspx?id=165 Intermediate students have a different perspective on time and on South Texas topography thanks to Owen Hopkins, petroleum geologist. Mr. Hopkins met with all fifth grade students on Tuesday, December 9 as a participant in the “Bones in Schools” program of the Corpus Christi Geological Society and the Texas A&M Kingsville Department of Biology. Mr. Hopkins past president of the Corpus Christi Geological Society, taught students how to “read” a colorful geologic and topographic map that he presented to the school. The students learned that the younger rock formations were variations of yellows and the oldest formations were in dark colors. Mr. Hopkins asked whether the students knew the word “Jurassic” and all hands shot up. He explained that the dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic age represented on the map by the color green. Dinosaur fossils or footprints would be found in those areas of the U.S. colored green. Mr. Hopkins said that “when Ice Age animals lived here 13,000 years ago, the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico was 60 miles east of where it is today--even Corpus Christi was high and dry!" In 1990 mammoth fossils were discovered at the Wright Gravel Pit near Bluntzer. The fossils were given to Texas A&M Kingsville Biology department for study, with the understanding that they would eventually be distributed to area schools. The Intermediate School was presented with a vertebra from a Columbian mammoth that lived 13,230 years ago along with a poster about Mammoth, Mastodons and Gomphotheres; that fossil is for display. Students will use another fossil, the leg joint of a mammoth, in their science labs. Mr. Hopkins said, "The bones found in South Texas are an incredible treasure trove--they rival the La Brea Tar pits in diversity of animals. The Corpus Christi Geological Society and TAMU-Kingsville are excited about putting these treasures into the Trophy Cases of all schools in the Coastal Bend.” The Corpus Christi Geological Society is presenting extinct animals bones that were found in Nueces County to every school in the Coastal Bend as part of their new educational initiative --“Bones in Schools”. The bone and poster will be displayed in the trophy case of the school. The students in their science lab will use another donated mammoth bone that they can handle. The Intermediate School is the third school in the Coastal Bend to receive the fossils. Owen Hopkins, geologist from the Corpus Christi Geological Society, stands with Intermediate science teachers Denisa McBee and Patricia Pittman, and Moises Alfaro, principal. Intermediate students Ignacio Fonseca, Juan Alvarez, Andrew Christoph (back to camera), and Jesus Gonzales look on. Intermediate School principal Moises Alfaro accepts the mammoth vertebra from Owen Hopkins, who presented the13,230 year old bone and mammoth poster to Mathis Intermediate School on behalf of Texas A&M Kingsville Biology Department, and the Corpus Christi Geological Society.