Digging Snowmastodon: Discovering an Ice Age World in the Colorado Rockies

In October 2010, a bulldozer operator working at the base of the Snowmass ski area in Colorado's Rocky Mountains uncovered the skeleton of a young female mammoth. Over the next 11 months, this find would yield a treasure trove of amazingly well-preserved ice age fossils - more than 5,000 bones of over 40 kinds of animals - and would change forever our understanding of alpine life in the ice age. The Snowmastodon Project's two lead scientists tell the dynamic story of this discovery and dig: the excitement, emotion, and the colorful cast of characters who made the project a success.

Kirk Johnson is the Chief Curator and Vice President for Research and Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He earned a Ph. D. in geology and paleobotany at Yale University in 1989 and has been at DMNS since 1991. His research focuses on fossil plants, the extinction of the dinosaurs, and methods for dating rocks and fossils. His research has taken him to all continents and he is presently working on projects in Patagonia, Utah, and Colorado. Dr. Johnson is the leader of the Snowmastodon Project.

Ian Miller is Curator of Paleontology and Chair of the Earth Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He earned a Ph. D. in geology and paleobotany at Yale University in 2007, and has been at DMNS since 2007. His research focuses on fossil plants and their applications for understanding ancient elevation, climate, and the position of continents. He is presently working on projects in the Colorado Rockies and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah. Dr. Miller is the co-leader of the Snowmastodon Project.