The Oregon State Beavers were looking forward to a new locker room at Reser Stadium. But it’s going to have to wait, because while excavating the site, construction crews found a goldmine of woolly mammoth bones.
According to the Oregonian, the locker room site was once part of a large marsh. The Willamette Valley is already rich with fossils thanks to being a mammoth range, but this is an unusual find because there are so many specimens and so many varied ones. In addition to mammoths, there are fossils from bison, the precursor of the camel, and other animals. Currently, the belief is that it was a watering hole, a common location for dying animals to come to and pass away at.
The main question is how long archaeologists will have to sort through the bones. Oregon law doesn’t protect archaeological sites unless they contain human remains, so in theory, the Beavers could demand their locker room site back tomorrow. That said, the school’s paleontology department is currently digging out what they can, and are finding some incredibly well-preserved specimens. Hopefully the team gets a chance to dig through the site and find just how extensive it is. Besides, who wants the bad karma of building on a woolly mammoth graveyard? That’s one haunting you really don’t want.
(Via the Oregonian)
