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Ancient elephants “rose from the dead” David B. Williams

EARTH Vol. 55 (No. 4), p. 16

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www.earthmagazine.org news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes A from the North American fossil record fossil American North the from disappear to seemed previously which — gomphotheres cousins, close beasts’ that the hunters also pursued the hirsute Now, researchers have enticing evidence “ROSEFROM DEAD” THE ANCIENT ELEPHANTSANCIENT 16 

EARTH 2010 April mastodons and mammoths. mammoths. and mastodons hunted Americans earliest North the that known long have rchaeologists both the hunter and the hunted. the and hunter the both ing archaeologists rewrite the history of and Clovis people. The discovery is help- gomphotheres both from remains with at the first known site in North America Mexico northwestern in found artifacts and fossils from comes evidence The humans first set foot in the New World. before years 100,000 about starting Remains of a juvenile gomphothere found at El Fin del Mundo.Findel El at foundgomphothere juvenile a of Remains noted that a tooth clearly revealed that they had a gomphothere. year,jaw, last the Then cleaning mastodon. after a researchers mandible stuck in the ground, which from the side resembled upside-downan foundteam the 2008,late in Butbison. a be Initially, one team member thought they were the right size to mammoth,”says.Holliday a be to small toowere They first. two juvenile gomphotheres. “We didn’t know what we had at the ribs, parts of pelvises, limb bones and vertebrae from at least says. Holliday date, specific more a pinpoint to trying are Sanchez and Holliday ages of the bone beds to between 13,500 and 11,200 years ago. bone beds with artifacts. Radiocarbon dating constrained the by volcanic surrounded peaks. The basin 50-square-meter dig a area contains in two sits site the road, dirt a down hours three and Mexico, Hermosillo, of north location remote its Portland,inOctober. meetinglast annualOre., reported They on their excavations.work at the first Geological Society of the America’s began Tucson in Arizona of History in andMexico City and Vance Anthropology Holliday of of the University Institute National the of Sanchez Guadalupe that 2007 until not was it but 1990s, the since In two field seasons, Holliday and Sanchez’s team has found to due Earth, the of End the or Mundo, del Fin El Dubbed Local ranchers had known about the big bones in the region he ky lpat o te Late mastodon,gomphothere. and mammoth the right: to of Left Pleistocene. elephants key Three www.earthmagazine.org

Bottom to top: Edmund Gaines; sculptures and photo by Mexican artist Sergio de la Rosa; Edmund Gaines • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes • news notes 17

 David B. Williams David B. Carolyn Carolyn Gramling April 2010

EARTH Lunar lava tubes are not only geologi- only not are tubes lava Lunar Lava tubes — channels that still-fluidchannelsthattubes— Lava Holliday also notes the importance of of importance the notes also Holliday lava lava travels through beneath the hard- flow lava a of crust outer cooling ening, — are common on Earth, and several have been identified on Mars as well. But intact lava tubes on the moon — at least those peeking out to the surface, called “skylights” — appear to be rare. This skylight, the scientists wrote, likely likely wrote, scientists the skylight, This roof tube’s lava the of part when formed collapsed. but noted, scientists the interesting, cally lunar future a for sites likely be also may some offer holes deep the because base, tem- impacts, meteorite from protection ultravio- high-energy extremes, perature let radiation and other hazards on the surface. moon’s chert chert tool was found directly below a peo- tying indirectly bones, the of mold ple to the gomphotheres. never “We’ll know if they killed the gomphothere or it,” scavenged Holliday says. “But I am not surprised at the locality [of the con- highest the that considering fossils] sites kill mammoth Clovis of centration is just Arizona.” across the border in the team’s artifact discoveries, including including discoveries, artifact team’s the from made points Clovis and flakes flint material The chert. and crystal quartz a place in evidence documented first the is United the of outside people Clovis for were points the of None says. he States, found with the gomphotheres, but a dark plains of basaltic lava arth’s arth’s moon still bears the remnants of ancient volcanic activity, including the vast, lived along the coasts coasts the along lived Cuvieronius The The Japanese moon orbiter SELENE captured images of a possible lunar skylight 65 Marius meters Hillsacross in region. the lava moon’s tube SKYLIGHT ON THE THE MOON SKYLIGHT ON Lambert and other proboscidean the orbiter on the near side known of region once-volcanic a the in moon planetary reported Hills, Marius the as scientist Junichi Haruyama of JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Geophysical in colleagues and Agency, Research Letters. called mare. Scientists studying high- studying Scientists mare. called resolution images of the moon taken SELENE orbiter moon Japanese the by rem- possible another identified have volcanism: bygone moon’s the of nant a large vertical hole that may be an estimated hole, The tube. lava ancient to be 65 meters in diameter and more than 80 meters deep, was spotted by E doubt on the coastal preference hypoth- preference coastal the on doubt esis, he says. time,” time,” says David Lambert, a gom- phothere specialist at theSchool Louisianaof Math, Science and the Artsin Natchitoches. “Successfully hiding an elephant for any length of time is a real feat.” experts had previously proposed that one reason more recent gomphothere found been previously not have remains that is America.of NorthIf that thewere case, then their remains would now be cov- level, sea in rise post-glacial the by ered Lambert says. The new find casts some of where it had been hiding all this , , it was the last Cuvieronius “rose Cuvieronius fossils Cuvieronius It’s It’s appears as if sported two spiraled tusks spiraled two sported Cuvieronius

www.earthmagazine.org A Clovis point projectile found near the eroded margins of bone bed. the gomphothere Excavations under way. are Lake peeled away deposits from there the gompho remains. from the dead … begging the question of the Pleistocene about 10,000 years ago. years 10,000 about Pleistocene the of In North America, have been found in California, Florida, New Mexico and Texas. Until this dis- were found fossils the youngest covery, about old. 120,000 years Central America, persisting until the end the until persisting America, Central elephant relatives. and — four had gomphotheres other — remainsTheir tall.meters 3 about stood throughoutfoundbeen and South have Identified as these of genus American North surviving Bottom: Vance Holliday; top right set: ©2009 by the American Geophysical Union Geophysical American the by ©2009 set: right top Holliday; Vance Bottom: