Corpus Christi Geological Society

Phase II - Bones in Schools

Phase II expands on our Phase I project of Maps in Schools. The second phase will introduce Bones in Schools and a whole new presentation throughout the Coastal Bend schools.

We have presented 113 schools with fossil bones in the Coastal Bend area.

Click here to donate to our Public Outreach programs!

The Maps in Schools, Bones in Schools, and Boulders in Schools all plant the seeds of curiousity in children around our community.

Thank you for all of your help!

Schools that have a Mammoth Bone and Mammoth Posters in their school Trophy Case

View Bones in Schools in a larger map

Click the icon to download our CCGeo Google Earth File.

The file contains our Maps in Schools project, Bones in Schools project, Virtual Field Trips, Voyage Solar System to be installed in Corpus Christi, and Orions Belt scale markers throughout Corpus Christi.

Bones Presentation by Owen Hopkins at the Northwest Library:

Schools that have a Mammoth Bone and Mammoth Posters in their school Trophy Case

from the Corpus Christi Geological Society

(Click on the underlined schools for an article and/or picture about the presentation.)

Updated: June 30, 2010

Sort by Society/Organization (color):

School Name	School Type	City	State	Ice Age Bone	Framed Ice Age Mural	Mural Donor

A.C. Jones High School	High	Beeville	TX
AC Blunt Middle School	Middle	Aransas Pass	TX
Adult Learning Center	Public	Corpus Christi	TX		4/20/10	Jim Brothers
Agua Dulce Elementary School	Elementary	Agua Dulce	TX		5/6/10	Nueces County Historical Society
Alice High School	High	Alice	TX
Allen Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		1/29/10	Ben Gloria Meadows
Aransas Pass High School	High	Aransas Pass	TX
Banquete Junior High	Middle	Banquete	TX
Ben Bolt Elementary School	Elementary	Ben Bolt	TX
Bishop Elementary	Elementary	Bishop	TX
Bishop Garriga Middle	Middle	Corpus Christi	TX
Blance Moore Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX
Blaschke Sheldon Intermediate	Intermediate	Ingleside	TX
Bundret Middle School	Middle	Port Aransas	TX
Calallen High School	High	Corpus Christi	TX		5/10/10	Jeff Kirby
Calallen Middle School	Middle	Corpus Christi	TX		5/10/10	Thomas A. Medary
Central Catholic	Private	Corpus Christi	TX		1/14/10	Owen Hopkins
Cesar Chavez High	High	Corpus Christi	TX		5/26/10	Bjoern Janke
Charlie Marshall Elementary	Elementary	Aransas Pass	TX
Chickasha Middle School	Middle	Chickasha	OK	1/30/09		Owen Hopkins
Chickasha Quality Academy	Private	Chickasha	OK	1/30/09		Owen Hopkins
College Prep High School	High	Corpus Christi	TX		5/12/10	Mary Campbell
Craft Training Center	Public	Corpus Christi	TX		5/14/10	Marty & Becky Davis
Crested Butte Community School	Public	Crested Butte	CO	1/20/10	1/20/10	Sam and Rhonda Ganz
Dr Clotide Garcia Library	Library	Corpus Christi	TX
Driscoll Middle School	Middle	Corpus Christi	TX		5/4/10	Milan Swikert
Early Childhood Development Center	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX
Education Service Center	Public	Corpus Christi	TX		4/6/10	Owen Hopkins
Ella Barnes Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		3/11/10	Atlee Tyree
Fadden-McKeown-Chamblis	Elementary	Beeville	TX
Falfurrias High School	High	Falfurrias	TX
Faulk Early Childhood Center	Elementary	Aransas Pass	TX
Flour Bluff High	High	Corpus Christi	TX
Flour Bluff Intermediate	Intermediate	Corpus Christi	TX
Galvan Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX	2/3/2010	2/3/2010	Sam and Rhonda Ganz
Garza Gonzalez Charter Schoolc	Charter	Corpus Christi	TX
Gibson Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX
Grand Elementary	Elementary	Chickasha	OK	1/30/09		Owen Hopkins
Gregory-Portland High School	High	Portland	TX		5/3/10	Ed Egger
Gregory-Portland Intermediate School	Elementary	Portland	TX		4/19/10	Ed Egger
Gregory-Portland Junior High	Middle	Portland	TX
H. M. King High School	High	Kingsville	TX
Housing Authority City of Corpus Christi	Public	Corpus Christi	TX
Houston School	.	.	.			Powell Ytsmz
IWA Elemetary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		5/19/10	Frank Cornish
IWA Middle School	Middle	Corpus Christi	TX		5/20/10	Bill Maxwell
IWA Secondary	High	Corpus Christi	TX		5/17/10	Rick Paige
Janet Harte Library	Library	Corpus Christi	TX
Jensen Elementary School	Elementary	Pasadena	TX
John Paul II High School	High	Corpus Christi	TX	12/2/09	12/2/09	Bernard Paulson
Kaffie Middle School	Middle	Corpus Christi	TX		3/11/10	Dan Pedrotti
Kendall Elementary	Elementary	Boerne	TX
Kieberger Elementary	Elementary	Aransas Pass	TX
Kostoryz Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		4/1/10	Bjoern Janke
Lamar Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		3/2/10	Maxine Fluornoy
Laser School	Alternative	Kingsville	TX
Laser School	Alternative	Kingsville	TX
Leander Middle School	Middle	Leander	TX		1/22/10	Tony Moherek
Lexington Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX	12/14/09	12/14/09	Gloria Hicks
Lincoln Elementary School	Elementary	Chickasha	OK	1/30/09		Owen Hopkins
Marble Falls High School	High	Marble Falls	TX		1/14/10	John Griesbach
Mary Grett School Special Campus School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		3/23/10	Bob Rice
Mathis Intermediate School	Intermediate	Mathis	TX
McCraw Junior High	Middle	Mathis	TX
Mi Casita Montesorri School	Private	Corpus Christi	TX		1/13/10	Owen Hopkins
Neyland Library	Library	Corpus Christi	TX
Norman Thomas Elementary School	Elementary	Freer	TX
Northwest Branch Library	Library	Corpus Christi	TX	10/17/09	10/17/09	Owen Hopkins
Orange Grove Junior High	Middle	Orange Grove	TX
Our Father's House	Private	Sandia	TX
Our Lady of Perpetual Help	Private	Corpus Christi	TX		5/17/10	Jeff Sizemore
Petronila Elementary School	Elementary	Robstown	TX
Pettus High School	High	Pettus	TX
Pioneer Elementary School	Elementary	Chickasha	OK	1/30/09		Owen Hopkins
Prescott Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX
Ray High School	High	Corpus Christi	TX		3/11/10	Mike Lucente
Refugio High School	High	Refugio	TX
Rockport-Fulton High School	High	Rockport	TX
San Diego High School	High	San Diego	TX
Sanders Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX	6/2009	3/9/10	Maxine Fluornoy
Santa Gertrudis Elementary School	Elementary	Kingsville	TX		4/8/10	Milan Swikert
Schanen Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		4/28/10	Atlee Tyree
School of Science and Technology	Charter	Corpus Christi	TX		5/9/10	Dennis Moore & Lauren Blanchard
Seashore Elementary Learning Center	Charter	Corpus Christi	TX		3/24/10	Chris Tutt
Seashore Middle Academy	Charter	Corpus Christi	TX		3/24/10	Craig Mullenax
Shaw Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		1/12/10	Atlee Tyree
Sinton High School	High	Sinton	TX
Smith Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX
South Park Middle	Middle	Corpus Christi	TX
SouthWest Elementary School	Elementary	Chickasha	OK	1/30/09		Owen Hopkins
SS. Cyril & Methodius School	Private	Corpus Christi	TX		5/26/10	Jeff Autrey
St. James Elementary	Private	Corpus Christi	TX			Riviera Exploration LLC Tony Hauglum
St. James Intermediate	Private	Corpus Christi	TX			Riviera Exploration LLC Tony Hauglum
St. Mary's Academy	Private	Bee	TX
Stephen F. Austin Elementary	Elementary	Gregory	TX	12/11/09	12/11/09	Stephen Thomas
Texas A&M Galveston	University	Galveston	TX		12/16/09	Owen Hopkins
Texas A&M Kingsville	University	Kingsville	TX		2/16/10	Owen Hopkins
Travis Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		11/13/09	Owen Hopkins
Tuloso-Midway High School	High	Corpus Christi	TX
Tuloso-Midway Int.	Middle	Corpus Christi	TX
University of Sci & Arts of Oklahoma	University	Chickasha	OK	1/30/09		Owen Hopkins
Waco Mammoth Site	Public	Waco	TX		4/19/10	Stalker Energy, LP
Welder Elementary	Elementary	Sinton	TX
West Oso Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX
WildCat Learning Center	Public	Portland	TX
Wilson Elementary School	Elementary	Houston	TX		05/2010	Mike Bertness
Windsor Park Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		10/28/09	Owen Hopkins
Woodlawn Elementary	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX
Woodsboro Junor High School	Middle	Woodsboro	TX
Wright's Materials	Private	Robstown	TX		12/18/09	Owen Hopkins
Yaxche School	Private	Taos	NM
YMCA	Public	Corpus Christi	TX
Zavala SES Elementary School	Elementary	Corpus Christi	TX		1/5/10	Nueces County Historical Society

Bones Presentation by Ronny Thomas:

Education Service Center
(Click Image to Watch Video)

Part I

Part II

CCGS Proclomation

Mammuthus (Manny) Manfred aka Manny (mammoth)
Synocnus (Sid) Sid (ground sloth)
Smilodon (Diego) Diego (saber-toothed cat)

Bones from extinct Ice Age (Pleistocene) mammals that roamed south of the glaciers and ranged from California to Arizona to New Mexico to Texas to Florida animals have been discovered in Nueces County and are displayed in local Museums. Global warming started 18,000 years ago!

Bones calculated to be 13,000 years old are found 40 feet below the surface of the Nueces River Floodplain in Nueces County.

These animals also used to live in southern US and became extinct about 11,000 B.C.

December 2008

Thank you letters from students... After a Maps in School Bones in Schools Presentation
Southwest Elementary in Chickasha, Oklahoma 4th and 5th graders

I learned about Global Warming. Thank you for the Mammoth tooth for our school—it was huge.

Conner

I would like to be a scientist. I would really love that.

Ceara

Thanks for teaching us about bones and donating a lot of cool stuff! Now all 4th and 5th graders at Southwest know about fossils.

Kaitlyn

I want you to know I loved Learning about Geology and I learned a lot. Geology is Study of Earth—Learn it! Thanks for giving my school the fosil!

Dakota

The volcano is young. That yellow is young. The gooble warming started 2 million year ago. 2 miles of ice.

Brayden

I really liked it when you taught us the 2 latin words ‘Geo’ and ‘ology’ that was really cool. And I did not know that global warming started 20,000 years ago.

Deidra

My favorite part was lerning about the Wooley Mammth Tooth.

Meghan

It was interesting. I liked the part about the ice and that it kept coming downward. Also thank you for the half of the mammoth tooth

Allison

I like it when you talk about the Ice Ages

Cheuvu

I learned so much. I don’t know the mammoth bone is 13,230 years old.

Emilea

The map that you gave us is really cool.

Sarah

Thanks for coming to our school. I had fun taking notes-it was important.

Jessie

I learned a lot about geologists and what they do.

Serena

Maybe one of them will want to become a geologist someday, now that they know this is a profession out there.

Angie Morgan 5th grade teacher

I gave a framed Geologic map, a mammoth tooth and two mammoth posters to my hometown school. YOU CAN TOO. SHIP SOME MAPS TO YOUR SCHOOL AND NEXT TIME YOU ARE THERE—CALL THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL AND ASK TO GIVE THEM A MAP. CALL me and come get a mammoth bone/poster for your hometown.

Owen Hopkins 11/19/08

Back row, left to right: teachers Don Linsteadt and Manuel Lopez, Dr. Rick Ford-Assistant Director, Dr. Anne Matula-Director, 4 Craft Training Center high school welding students and CCGS VP Rick Paige on the far right.

The above pictured students are in Class II welding class at the Craft Training Center in Corpus Christi. They will be designing bone stands to take back to their home school districts along with an extinct mammal bone. These students were very interested in the bones we brought with us, and they are looking forward to being a part of the process of distributing the TAMU-Kingsville donated bones to area schools. They were very proud to be able to take the bone stand and posters to their own schools. It gives them some ownership in this project and gives them something very special and unique to show to their classmates, teachers and principals at their own school.

Their curiosity and excitement is what the CCGS wants to spread all around the Coastal Bend. We want to “Plant the Seeds of Geologic Curiosity” to get students to think, investigate, discuss and see how interesting the world is around them—to get them to WANT to finish high school and WANT to go to college. We are achieving our goal by planting the ‘seeds’ of framed US Geologic Maps and Ice Age animal bones in all of our area schools. These ‘seeds’ will be in schools for many years to come, and we are proud that the Craft Training Center students will be a part of this community process.

The bone stand on the left was designed and welded jointly by Jeremy Rodriguez, Ricardo Gaitan and Michael Dodge of Mathis High School at the Craft Training Center of the Coastal Bend. The bone stand on the right was done by Andrew Torres and John Rodriguez of Gregory-Portland High School.

Our stated goal is for the Craft Training Center High School welding students to select a bone, design a stand, weld the stand, paint and prep the stand. The stands will be signed/initialed by the welding student. Dr. Jon Baskin or Ronny Thomas will be invited to the CTC to help the students identify their bones. Then the welding students will take the bone, stand and posters back to their schools and present it to a school of their choice. This material will be displayed in a Trophy Case (might have to slid some of sports trophies over a bit) for students, parents and teachers to see for years to come.

The teachers then will have an opportunity to attend a Bones in School Workshop on January 17th at the Education Service Center in Corpus Christi to learn more details about the incredible diversity of mammal bones found in Nueces County—the La Brean fauna found here are as diverse and the ones found at the La Brea Tar Pit in Los Angeles.

This is a project combining the Arts and the Sciences. Funding contributions coming from Texas A&M Kingsville Department of Biology, Corpus Christi Geological Society, Coastal Bend Geophysical Society, Craft Training Center, Education Service Center Region 2 and two local welding supply companies that supplied the materials—Industrial Piping & Steel and Champion Welding.

Owen Hopkins
10/20/08

The CCGS Education Phase II was approved by the CCGS Executive Committee at a board meeting held on January 23, 2008. Part of the new program includes the funding to commission “Dinah Bowman, local artist, to paint a 3.5 by 7 foot mural of a snapshot of the Nueces Bay Floodplain 13,000 years ago that would include extinct and non-extinct species.” A 14 by 7 foot enlargement of the mural will be installed at the Northwest Branch Library in Corpus Christi, Texas. The board approved $30,000 for the mural and its installation. The mural will then be made into posters to be given to schools along with bone samples from the same time period that will be provided by Dr Jon Baskin and Ronnie Thomas from TAMU-Kingsville.

Jeff Cobbs, President and Sebastian Wiedmann, Treasurer made a presentation to the Northwest Branch Library on February 24, 2008 telling the 660 invited guests about the CCGS funding of the mural and its importance to Corpus Christi.

The picture at top right is Swan Lake in Ingleside where 42 extinct species were discovered in 1940 and shipped to Univ. of Texas in Austin. The shelves show 250 mammoth teeth collected by TAMU-Kingsville. The mammoth picture is a portion of the fresco mural in the Peabody Museum on the Yale University campus of the Ice Age in the Northeast. (ours will be better because it will include non-extinct species)

May 2007

Thank you letters from students... After a Maps in School and Safari In S. Texas Presentation

You made it sound fun to be a geologist so when I go to high school I will graduate and take classes for geology at the University of Texas. Thanks for giving us the TigerEye stones

Freddie

Last night when we were eating dinner my mom said “can you give me the salt” and I said “don’t say salt anymore—they are rocks”. I told her that plastic is made from oil.

Elias

I liked when you said that copper is green and halite is salt. Now that you told me that, I feel great! Thanks for the bones and the map. (the bones are Phase II-Safari in south Texas.)

Alejandro

I want to learn about snakes and more about reptiles and volcanoes. I learned that we eat rocks every day. I learned that a Mammoth tooth was from the Ice Age.

Giovanni

It was really awesome that you showed us about the glacier and how long and tall a glaicer can go and how really cold a glacier can be. I also want to thank you for the map you gave us where you told us about the glacier and also for the mamoth tooth you gave to the whole school. (Wrights Brothers Gravel Pit and Quarry requires that we give the samples to the schools—and the students and the schools really appreciate them)

Erik

Is you’r life as a gialegust affects you personally? When I grow up I whant to be like you

Sencirally:Jason (phonetic spelling is OK)

I realize that science ain’t just boring and about old thing. I like it when you taugh us aboud Dago and Many (Phase II-Safari in S Texas—I tell them that the characters in the recent movie ICE AGE of Manny the Mammoth, Diego the Sabertooth cat and Sid the Sloth really lived in South Texas). Also when you told us about how your failing and how you got help-- it made (me) realize that I can do something better in my life because I’m failing science.

Tony

Thank you for giving us something more valuble than money or gold—thanks for your time.

David

I couldn’t believe that mammoths usto live her on campus.

Destiny

One interesting thing that you told us that I enjoyed is that 18,000 years ago Global warming began. Another interesting thins is when you told us that 11,000 years ago Manny, Diego and Sid lived in Texas (this is Phase II-Safari in South Texas—the kids like to hear and remember this stuff)
Maria

… the part that was the worst was when we had to go to lunch—that was a big bumer

Gabriella

May 2007

I am very excited that the 11th annual Family Fossil Hunt is again scheduled this year at the Wright Brothers’ Gravel Pit and Quarry. This is a tremendous opportunity for students, parents and geologists to find bones of a diverse number of extinct Pleistocene mammals in our own county. The species diversity of fauna compares to the La Brea Tar Pit in Los Angeles---the same animals they find there, we find here and all are referred to as the La Brea Fauna.

So come out on May 19th and see what everyone finds at the pit—see why I am so excited about my Phase II— Safari in South Texas. One of these bones, a drawing of the skeleton of the animal, an artist’s rendition of the animal and a paleographic map of the Nueces River 11,000 years ago need to be in the Trophy cases of each school in the Coastal Bend. Come out and be a part of a Safari in South Texas. Dr Jon Baskin and Mr Ronnie Thomas of TAMU-Kingsville will be on hand to identify the discoveries.

Susan and I were in Las Vegas the weekend before the AAPG convention in Long Beach and we asked a cab driver to take us to the Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas—it is not a usual tourist destination. It was spectacular—I would like to have something like this in Corpus Christi. The picture above is of a cast of a Mammoth along with a mural of the Las Vegas area during the Ice Age. These same animals lived in Corpus Christi. It was exciting to walk under the creature and really experience its size because when you tell a student that these animals were 16 feet tall, it is hard to imagine how big they are. This is a cast, but I saw a complete authentic skeleton for sale at the Tuscon Gem and Mineral Show for $300,000 delivered and setup.

I retired from active oil and gas management at Suemaur Exploration—but find out what I have learned about retirement in my continuing saga of the oil business in Lessons Learned.

Owen Hopkins
President Corpus Christi Geological Society
ccgeo.org 4/16/07 rev

April 2007

Phase I - Fifty-one USGS Time and Terrain Geologic Maps of the US are on the walls of local schools thanks to the efforts and donations from many members of our society. The goal of getting 100 of them placed by the end of this school year is on track.

Phase II - Safari it South Texas has started with donations of extinct Pleistocene mammal bones (collected by Ronnie Thomas TAMUK and me in December) to Ella Barnes Elementary and to Kostoryz Elementary during Public School Week March 5th to March 9th. A flyer about the movie Ice Age has been prepared that indicates that the animals depicted in that movie lived in south Texas and our fossil assemblages here are similar to those from the La Brea tar pits in California.

Owen Hopkins
3/10/07

March 2007

The Phase I--Maps in School Project 2006-2007 to place the USGS Time and Terrain Geologic Map of the US in 100 schools in the Coastal Bend before the end of this school year is on track.

The Phase II--Safari in South Texas
Texas A&M University Kingsville (TAMU-K) has collected bones from more than 20 species of extinct animals from a gravel pit just west of Corpus Christi over the past 16 years. The diversity of animals rivals that from the La Brea tar pit fauna and also of the Anza-Borrego fauna in California. The plan is to prepare a permanent display for each middle school that contains:
1- large, actual bone from an extinct mammal that was collected in Nueces, County
2- drawing of the skeleton of the extinct animal with the displayed bone highlighted
3- artists drawing of what the animal looked like when alive with reference scale
4- a map showing the Nueces River flood plain as it looked 18,000 years ago
5- an artists rendition of the Corpus Christi Bay “Serengeti Plain” showing the diverse
flora and fauna

This plan includes cooperation of the TAMU-K and the Corpus Christi Geological Society. We had this incredible diversity of animals and we think all the students in our area should be aware of this. The Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History is in the process of changing its emphasis and being renamed the Corpus Christi Museum of History—so all the more reason to get these displays in the schools because they won’t get it in our local museum.

Funding for a project like this will be considerably more than for Phase I, but I think it is worthwhile. And like Win Sexton has always said, “good ideas will get drilled”—so I am hopeful this will get drilled also. I have been in contact with two foundations that have suggested that we submit a written proposal—should be done by April. And I am attending an AAPG leadership conference in Tulsa with other society presidents where I hope to get some ideas. And I would like input from the membership on any ideas or comments or suggestions.

Owen Hopkins 2/08/07
Picture at the top was taken at Sal de Atacama in the Atacama desert in northern Chile—this 1300 square mile closed salt field is 7500’ above sea level. A smoldering, 18,334’ Lascar Andes volcano is in the background.

Article from Corpus Beat:

MATH & SCIENCE: U.S. VS. WORLD

Cinda Alvarado - Magazine Editor
Posted 8/13/2007 at 3:47 PM

PUBLICATION COVER

On the Summer 2007 feature:

All my student life, as far back as grade school, my least favorite subject was math, followed by science. The closest I got to being excited about science was watching an animated History Channel special about dinosaurs. And in college, one of my favorite aspects to majoring in journalism was that my degree plan required only one math class.

A lack of interest and naive belief that I’ll never need math and science as an adult resulted in merely doing the minimum in those subjects to get by. Of course, I’m kicking myself for it now — as I am currently re-learning basic math skills to help improve my GRE scores for a doctoral degree.

In this issue CorpusBeat examines challenges local educators have in advancing their students in math and science, plans to move their schools forward in these subjects and why this is so important both nationally and in South Texas. In a 2005 mathematics assessment administered to students in 15 countries, 11 outperformed the U.S., and four scored similarly. None scored significantly below the U.S., according to the National Academies, Advisors to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine.

When I spoke with semi-retired geologist Owen Hopkins I was taken aback by his enthusiasm and passion about science. In examining this issue I heard some innovative and creative ideas about how local schools can improve math and science education, but it is Owen that comes to mind.

“Next year, my goal is to put bones in schools,” he says. “There is a gravel pit west of town and they occasionally find these amazing bones, mammoth teeth the size of a loaf of bread. And get this, mammoth only have four teeth and they have found hundreds of mammoth teeth in that pit. Do you know what that means? Those animals used to live in Texas!

“When I go to schools and talk about this topic I bring a picture of the cartoon Ice Age — the mammoth, sloth, and saber tooth cat — all of those bones are found in the pit in Corpus Christi! The people who own the pit, the Wrights, they allow bones to be taken out and given away to schools. We give two or three bones per school when we make a visit.

“My brainstorm — I want to put an actual bone or tooth or claw of some animal we found in Corpus Christi in the trophy cases of the schools. I want to put a picture of a skeleton, highlight the bone in the case, and then maybe another picture of what the animal looked like in real life, then a paleo geographic map. Paleo means old, geo means earth and graph is a map, so what Corpus Christi looked like 11,000 years ago.

“We display sports awards in school trophy cases, let’s put some science too. Students will stop, look, wonder and be curious.”

If only more local scientists, chemists, engineers, mathematicians, industry leaders and educators could get students as curious and excited about math, science and technology as Owen Hopkins does, imagine how that could influence the futures of our adolescents.

Credit: Cinda Alvarado - Magazine Editor
MATH & SCIENCE: U.S. VS. WORLD

Copyright (c) 2007 CorpusBeat

Article from Reuters Top News Stories:

Mammoth skeleton found nearly intact in Los Angeles
Wed Feb 18, 2009
By Dan Whitcomb
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE51H7R220090218

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The nearly complete skeleton of a massive Columbian mammoth who died during the last ice age has been dug out of a construction site near the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown Los Angeles, a remarkable find even in the fossil-rich area, scientists said Wednesday.

The mammoth, dubbed "Zed" by researchers at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, likely died in his late 40s some 40,000 years ago and was found near an unprecedented treasure trove of fossils that workers stumbled upon while digging the foundation for an underground parking garage.

"What makes this so special, so exciting for us is that Zed is a complete specimen," laboratory supervisor Shelley Cox said while showing off his dirt-encrusted, dinner table-sized brown pelvic bone for reporters.

"And he's really big compared to the mammoths we've recovered from La Brea before," Cox said. "The tusks are considerably larger than anything we had expected."

The Columbian mammoth was a species of elephant that became extinct near the end of the last ice age.

Included in the cache of fossils were some 700 specimens, including a large prehistoric American Lion skull, lion bones, bones from dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, juvenile horse and bison, teratorn, coyotes, lynx and ground sloths.

The discovery is expected to double the size of the museum's collection.

Though the La Brea Tar Pits, in the city's mid-Wilshire district, are the site of the richest ice age deposits in the world, many fossils pulled out of the dirt and asphalt-like muck are jumbled with other bones. Mammoths are a rare find.

Like all animals discovered at the site, Zed became stuck in a tar pit along a river bed and ultimately died of exhaustion or starvation.

Researchers believe his skeleton remained largely intact because soon after he died he was washed away by a flood and then covered by enough sediment, sand and debris to keep predators from making off with parts of the carcass.

They estimate his skeleton is 80 percent complete, missing only a hind leg and a vertebrae. While most mammoth tusks, which are made up of fragile material called dentine, are only found in small chunks, Zed's are intact and a remarkable 10-feet long.

Examination of Zed's bones shows he was between 47 and 49 years old, suffered from arthritis and had broken three ribs during his lifetime, possibly in fights with other mammoths.

Carbon dating is expected to show he lived between 38,000 and 42,000 years ago and had long lain under a department store parking garage.

Last Updated January 27th, 2010
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