The ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ find offers a window into prehistoric America and its megafauna.
Gomphotheres first evolved about 23 million years ago in the early Miocene period and dispersed into Asia and Europe. They likely crossed the Bering land bridge into North America 16 million years ago, and then crossed into South America via the newly risen Isthmus of Panama around 13 million years later.and overhunting from humans led to the gomphotheres’ extinction around the end of the last ice age.
“I started coming upon one after another of toe and ankle bones,” said retired chemistry teacher and volunteer fossil-hunter. “As I continued to dig, what turned out to be the ulna and radius started to be uncovered. We all knew that something special had been found.” The elephants were likely deposited or transported to the area over time. “Modern elephants travel in herds and can be very protective of their young, but I don’t think this was a situation in which they all died at once,”
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