Supplemental Materials: Pleistocene Animal Jaws & Teeth

 

Columbian mammoth mandible with teeth.

Western Science Center

The Columbian mammoth is the largest and most identified extinct large mammal found in the Las Vegas Formation at Tule Springs Fossil Bed National Monument. Fully-grown males could reach approximately 13 feet at the shoulder, weighing close to 22,000 lbs. Both male and female Columbian mammoths grew long, curved tusks.

 

A Scott's horse mandible with teeth.

Cogstone Resource Management | Eric Scott

Equus scotti was one of the last of the native North American horses and had a wide distribution over the continent. It probably preferred grasslands, open wetlands, and open woodlands. Fossils of this horse first appeared approximately 2 million years ago and went extinct by 10,000 years ago.

 

A dire wolf mandible with teeth.

F. Robin O'Keefe

The dire wolf is a recent addition to the Pleistocene fauna found at Tule Springs Fossil Beds. The dire wolf was about the size of the largest gray wolves, with a shoulder height of about three feet.

 

An ancient bison mandible with teeth.

Western Science Center

Although some species have gone extinct, bison have lived in North America for hundreds of thousands of years. Herds of now-extinct bison once lived in what is now Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument during the Pleistocene epoch, between 100,000-12,500 years ago.

 

A western camel jaw with teeth.

Cogstone Resource Management | Eric Scott

Fossils of the ancient camel make up one third of the total large Pleistocene mammals identified at Tule Springs, making it one of the most common mammals to occur here. Camelops is also commonly found at other Pleistocene sites within Nevada and other Mojave Desert sites, likely due to lush wetland habitats that supported small herds of these camels.