Why are woolly mammoth remains found in quarry environments in southern Indiana? How typical are quarry finds of Pleistocene fossils?

04 February 2018 100 4K Report

Pleistocene remains such as woolly mammoth bones have been found in some quarries in southern Indiana. Do these fossils in quarry settings indicate a high energy depositional environment, perhaps from glacial meltwater overland flow or floods of some sort? How many such finds exist from quarry locations? What is the range of such finds?

Michael Buchwitz

All of our specimens come from gravel quarries which repräsentiert "normal" fluvial deposits (of the river Elbe) that include reworked glacial materials but where not necessarily deposited in proximity to a glacier (where mammoths would not survive).

Ştefan Vasile

Dear Joanne,

I presume sand or/and gravel is excavated in the quarries you mentioned. Such sediments are indicative of a medium to high energy depositional environment, which implies high accumulation rates. This leads to fast burial of bones, which are protected from surface weathering agents.

That's why gravel and sand are good for storing large mammal remains that are not easily fragmented by hydraulic transport in a high-energy setting. In southern Romania, most mammoth fossil remains are found in sands and gravels, but there are also some found in loess - not that many, however, since it would take a high rate of sedimentation to cover large bones in aeolian dust.

Around here, the glaciers were restricted to the top of the mountains, above 2000 m. Although glaciers surely supplied rivers with meltwater, I don't think there was much glacial flooding (none is documented as far as I know).

Coming back to quarry deposits - sand and gravels are not necessarily deposited from glacial meltwater or floods. Regular fluvial deposits can do the trick just as well.

James Verhoff

There may be two other factors to consider here as well:

First, quarries are where we dig. And it's a basic truism that we can't find fossils where we don't dig--anything that remains burried remains undiscovered. So I would be curious as to whether bones are more common in quarries, or discoveries are. I've heard of some fairly spectacular finds on construction sites in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, so I'm not sure we can say, without mroe rigorous analysis, that bones are concentrated in quarries. In California they certainly don't appear to be.

Second, quarrying sand/gravel to any depth takes a lot of work, so it's likely that pre-industrial or nomadic groups simply didn't do it, at least not on the scale we do. They may have encountered remains in other locations and used them in various ways. If this occurred (and I'll admit I'm speculating here), it would have been in the Pleistocene; I don't recall any traditions among the native tribes in that area regarding use of fossil bones or ivory. It would also mean that we would tend to find remains in areas that are less easily accessible, due to collection of the more-accessible material.

Joanne P Ballard

Thanks everyone for your responses. I am located in Tennessee, and focus on sites in the eastern U.S.A. Worldwide locations are also of interest, but I am not as familiar with the geology and geography there.

Stefan, how do large mammal bones come to be buried in loess. As a wind blown deposit, wouldn't it take some time to cover the remains of an animal? Scavengers could disarticulate the skeleton and carry off bones...and the bones would be exposed to the elements and deteriorate...

Yes these should be medium to high energy deposits for gravels to get moved, along with large bones. It seems that bones might get damaged in transport. But I am posing the question in general terms and do not have samples to examine as a dataset.

James, good points. Fossils-often the whole skeleton- are often found in sinkhole ponds in Michigan, WIsconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and also New York State and Pennsylvania as you mentioned. No I do not expect fossil to be concentrated in quarries but I do not of some occurrences. I want to know how many instances there are of Pleistocene fossils in Quarries; the geographic distribution of these finds; what condition they are in; what age they are: and if this can be correlated to an event, or if it is just normal everyday deposition during the ice ages.

I think most of these occurrences in the U.S. may not have an archaeological aspect to them.

James Verhoff

It's a bit outside your research area, but you may want to contact the staff at the Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee. They are workign on a massive fossil deposit, where they are pulling out spectacular finds. They also may have access to references that would help you out, as they're looking at a similar depositional environment.

Joanne P Ballard

Good suggestion. The Gray Fossil site is Miocene though, and I am interested in late glacial deposits. But I know a couple of the paleontologists there and will ask them. Thanks.

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