Baby Mammoth by National Geographic

Baby Mammoth

Photograph courtesy Rick Wicker, Denver Museum of Nature & Science

The partially excavated fossils of a young Columbian mammoth emerge from the dig site, as seen on November 12. The Colorado fossil cache is one of the few in the United States—and the only one in Colorado—in which mammoth and mastodon fossils have been found together.
Though the two ancient elephant relatives looked similar, there were distinctions. For one, mastodons were smaller than mammoths, had straighter tusks, and they browsed on trees and shrubs. Mammoths were larger than modern elephants and ate mostly grasses. Both giants went extinct about 12,800 years ago, scientists say.
"Sites like this are extremely rare," team member Elias said in a statement. "To find hundreds of bones like this, spanning possibly 100,000 years of time, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
(See a National Geographic magazine interactive on bringing mammoths back to life.)

Published February 9, 2011