Columbian mammoth skeleton in situ at The Mammoth Site, Hot Springs, South Dakota, USA.

This is the most complete Columbian mammoth skeleton found so far at The Mammoth Site, which is a fascinating museum and active paleontological site in the town of Hot Springs, in the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA. It is the largest collection of in-situ mammoth remains in the world. Sheltered within the building is an ongoing excavation of a prehistoric sinkhole filled with the remains of animals and plants preserved by entrapment and burial around 140,000 years ago, in the Late Pleistocene. Since mammoth bones were found here accidentally in 1974, the remains of 61 mammoths have been recovered (including 58 North American Columbian and 3 woolly mammoths as of 2021). Due to geological conditions after the animals were trapped, the excavated "fossil" bones are not petrified or turned to stone, so are very brittle, requiring professional handling.

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Filename: 2109SD-023.jpg
Copyright: © Tom Dempsey / PhotoSeek.com
Image Size: 5472x3648 / 8.6MB; http://www.photoseek.com/; Animalia Mammalia animal history mammals past vertebrate
Contained in galleries: SD: The Mammoth Site, Hot Springs, 2021 Aug 1-Sep 12: CA Sierras, CO, NE, SD

This is the most complete Columbian mammoth skeleton found so far at The Mammoth Site, which is a fascinating museum and active paleontological site in the town of Hot Springs, in the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA. It is the largest collection of in-situ mammoth remains in the world. Sheltered within the building is an ongoing excavation of a prehistoric sinkhole filled with the remains of animals and plants preserved by entrapment and burial around 140,000 years ago, in the Late Pleistocene. Since mammoth bones were found here accidentally in 1974, the remains of 61 mammoths have been recovered (including 58 North American Columbian and 3 woolly mammoths as of 2021). Due to geological conditions after the animals were trapped, the excavated "fossil" bones are not petrified or turned to stone, so are very brittle, requiring professional handling.