Paleontology

Mammoth W, a female mammoth, lies in situ at Waco Mammoth National Monument

Image courtesy of City of Waco and Dava Butler

Waco Mammoth National Monument is one of the world’s most unique paleontological sites due to the discovery of the “nation’s first and only recorded evidence of a nursery herd of Pleistocene Columbian mammoths” (NPS).

Located between the Bosque and Brazos Rivers, the monument is also one of only eight sites in the United States where visitors can view fossil remains in situ, or still in their original position in the bone bed. Excavated remains are under curatorial care by the Mayborn Museum at Baylor University.

Continued study of both the in situ and excavated remains will help scientists learn more about the site. Paleontologists are scientists who study plant and animal fossils. Geologists are scientists who study rocks and soil. Both types of scientists conduct research at Waco Mammoth to answer important questions like:

• What was the climate like in Texas during the Ice Age?
• What plants and animals lived here during the Ice Age?
• Why did so many animals come to this area?
• What happened to these mammoths and other animals? How did they die here?