Scientists learn more from mammoth bone discovery, funding needed to continue dig

BISMARCK — With every ounce of dirt dredged from some undisclosed location in northwestern North Dakota, scientists are learning more about a 13,500-year-old woolly mammoth that has been known about, but concealed, for decades.

State geologist Ed Murphy and paleontologist Clint Boyd revealed bone fragments to the North Dakota Industrial Commission on Tuesday, Nov. 26, after having “very good luck” during their September dig.

The scientists have found parts of a tooth, lower jaw and a shin — which had an out of place growth plate, indicating the mammoth was “sub adult.”

“If you look on the bottom of it, you can see a bunch of ridges and grooves on there, and that’s because there should be a growth plate attached on there, which would round off the bone,” Boyd said. “But the growth plate isn’t in place, which tells us that this is still a very young individual.”

Woolly mammoths went extinct over 10,000 years ago as the Earth transitioned from the ice age to the most recent geologic period, from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, according to

the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.

Working in tandem, Murphy and Boyd resurrected the project in May after it had sizzled on the back burner for nearly 36 years.

Murphy was contemplating retirement almost a year ago when he remembered what a group of high school students discovered under a garage in 1988.

“It was haunting me,” Murphy told commissioners Tuesday.

In 1988, students building a garage foundation found what they thought was a piece of fossilized coral. They called their high school science teacher Dan Aird, who later became an archaeologist, to confirm their hypothesis.

But Aird was convinced the fossils were of grander proportions. He called upon Murphy to visit the undisclosed location and confirm that it was an ice age mammal.

Aird, Murphy and the students were eager to dig in 1988 — and so was the retired landowner at the time, on the condition that the excavation time frame aligned with him flying south for the winter.

By the time Murphy could coordinate a dig, however, he was too late. The cement slab had become the mammoth’s unmarked gravestone.

There were no records confirming the connection between the property and mammoth fossils, but teeth found during construction were sent to and verified by North Dakota State University’s geology department around that time, according to Murphy. There are also photographs of the fossils found in 1988.

“There’s still plenty more to excavate outside of the garage, but so far, all of the anecdotal evidence we got from people that were there at the time is matching up precisely with what parts of the animal they think they found, and how much of it should be there,” Boyd said.

Boyd explained to commissioners that because the rest of the mammoth is still concealed by the garage, the department needs more funding from the Legislature to remove the slab and finish excavating. The exact amount was not discussed during Tuesday’s meeting.

Since the discovery was made on private property, it’s ultimately up to the landowners to decide the young mammoth’s fate. The fossils could be kept, sold or donated to the state, according to Boyd.

“So far, we’ve had very great relations with the landowner. They’re very excited,” Boyd said. “They set up a folding chair right next to the edge of the pit while we’re working and just watched us the whole time. I would think that would be really boring, but apparently it’s not.”

Aird, the science teacher who started it all, is excited to see what more comes of his small community’s discovery from years ago.

“It’s interesting I think to almost anybody, that these big elephants lived where we live right now,” Aird said. “I hope they get the money so they can cut out some of that slab in the garage. I think they’ll find that most of the critter is under there.”

The State Historical Society of North Dakota created the following video for those interested in learning more about the project.

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