Forty researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science have added 15 humans, two excavators, two track hoes and a few other pieces of machinery in hopes of accelerating their work recovering Ice Ace bones from Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village.
“Our goal is to remove 50 percent of the bones by the end of this week,” said Kirk Johnson, leader of the museum’s excavation team and vice president of the Research and Collections Division.
“We worked closely with engineers who staked out the exact locations to dig and expose the ancient lake bottom, where most of the fossils are located. The landscape is changing daily as we pull out tons of dirt and incredible numbers of fossils.”
More than 1,000 fossils have been uncovered since digging resumed May 15, including 15 jacketed fossils of mastodon skulls and pelvises that each weigh 300 to 700 pounds. A team of 10 is cleaning, wrapping and processing the fossils for conservation and research back in Denver.
The public can take a peek June 18-19, during the Ice Age Spectacular in Snowmass Village. Johnson will make presentations at Colorado Mountain College on June 15 and at the Aspen Institute on June 23. To learn more about the Ice Age Spectacular Weekend in Snowmass Village scheduled for June 18 and 19, .
This is the museum’s second run at the important Ice Age discovery, which was uncovered Oct. 14 when a bulldozer unearthed mammoth bones while expanding the 15-acre reservoir.
During the first dig, more than 500 bones were found, including those of mastodons, mammoths, Ice Age bison and Colorado’s first-ever Jefferson’s ground sloth. The Denver Post
