Fact Check: Yes, picture does show mammoth skull unearthed in Michigan farmer's field
A photograph authentically shows the skull of a mammoth discovered in a Michigan farm field in 2015.
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For roughly a decade, a photograph has circulated online allegedly showing a large mammoth skull covered in mud hanging from an excavator bucket.
Numerous social media users have claimed that the discovery occurred in a field in Michigan in 2015 and that evidence from the site suggested that early humans butchered and buried the mammoth more than 11,000 years ago (archived). For example, in late April 2025, one contributor to Vocal, a website that provides creators with a platform to tell stories, included the picture in an article titled: "The Mammoth Discovery in Michigan A Window into Earth's Ancient Past."
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1316155023874939&id=100064413620633&set=a.482688990554884
The creator claimed that the "extraordinary" unearthing took place 10 years ago (archived):
In 2015 an extraordinary discovery on a Michigan farm provided a rare glimpse into Earth's ancient history. James Bristle a farmer from Lima Township was digging a natural gas line on his property when he struck something unusual. What he initially thought was a bent piece of wood turned out to be the skull and massive tusks of a woolly mammoth a species that once roamed vast regions of North America during the Ice Age.
The same photo has also appeared on X, Facebook and Threads over the years. In short, it is genuine — meaning it was not created using artificial intelligence software or manipulated using digital editing tools — and it authentically depicts the skull of an ancient mammoth. Therefore, we have rated this claim as true.
The University of Michigan included the photo, the work of photographer Daryl Marshke, in a 2015 news release announcing the mammoth find. An accompanying caption read, "Paleontology Ph.D. candidate John Fronimos watches as the mammoth skull and tusks are hoisted from the excavation pit."
The university also posted a video describing the discovery on YouTube on Oct. 2, 2015.
Experts speculated that the skull belonged to a male mammoth who was around 40 years old at the time of his death, between 11,700 and 15,000 years ago, according to the 2015 news release.
In addition to the intact skull, the excavators found only select parts of the animal, including the jaw, tusks, some vertebrae and ribs, the pelvis, parts of the shoulders and a kneecap. None of the limbs survived, suggesting that these parts may have been located elsewhere or eaten by animals. In all, the paleontologists recovered about one-fifth of the animal.
University of Michigan Ph.D. candidate Joe El-Adli holding one of the mammoth vertebrae recovered during the dig. (Daryl Marshke, Michigan Photography)
University of Michigan paleontologists theorized the skeleton was brought to the area by ancient humans who stored the mammoth parts in a pond, intending to return at a later time when fresh meat was needed.
"We think that humans were here and may have butchered and stashed the meat so that they could come back later for it," Daniel Fisher, then the director of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, said in the news release. The statement continued:
The team's working hypothesis is that ancient humans placed the mammoth remains in a pond for storage. Caching mammoth meat in ponds for later use is a strategy that Fisher said he has encountered at other sites in the region.
Evidence supporting that idea includes three basketball-sized boulders recovered next to the mammoth remains. The boulders may have been used to anchor the carcass in a pond.
The researchers also recovered a small stone flake that may have been used as a cutting tool next to one of the tusks. And the neck vertebrae were not scattered randomly, as is normally the case following a natural death, but were arrayed in their correct anatomical sequence, as if someone had "chopped a big chunk out of the body and placed it in the pond for storage," Fisher said.
Daniel Fisher, former director of the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology and leader of the 2015 dig. (Daryl Marshke, Michigan Photography)
The news release also noted that farmer James Bristle found the mammoth while installing a drainage pipe on his property in Lima Township, about 10 miles from Ann Arbor.
Mammoths and their relatives, mastodons, were ancient cousins of modern elephants. These prehistoric animals roamed North America before becoming extinct more than 11,000 years ago, according to the American Museum of Natural History.
Fisher told Michigan Alum magazine he estimated that at the time of the discovery, roughly 300 mastodons and 30 mammoths had been found in Michigan. Snopes contacted the researchers for an update on any further research involving the mammoth, including its supposed connection to early humans. We will update this article if we receive a response.
- YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbekbGz1cEY. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
Threads. https://www.threads.net/@earthlymission/post/DDKYAobNnG7. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
"Washtenaw County Mammoth Find Hints at Role of Early Humans." University of Michigan News, 2 Oct. 2015, https://news.umich.edu/washtenaw-county-mammoth-find-hints-at-role-of-early-humans/.
"Woolly Michigan Mammoth." Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, https://alumni.umich.edu/michigan-alum/woolly-michigan-mammoth/. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
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