Latest news with #Juett
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Texas hunter's ‘old stump' find was actually a rare mammoth tusk
A local visitor to the O2 Ranch believed he came across something special while hunting on the property in West Texas. But ranch manager Will Juett took some convincing. After researchers from Sul Ross State University (SRSU) descended on the historic property, Juett realized the discovery was indeed something special: It was an extremely rare mammoth tusk. 'I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil,' Juett said in a university announcement. 'I figured it was likely just an old stump.' The investigation began soon after Juett contacted Bryon Schroeder, a longtime acquaintance and director of SRSU's Center for Big Bend Studies (CBBS). Along with CBBS archeologist Erika Blecha and a few other colleagues, Schroeder's team traveled to O2 Ranch to examine the object found sticking out the ground in a creekbed's drainage area. 'We realized pretty quickly there was not more to the skeleton, just an isolated tusk that had been separated from the rest of the remains,' Schroeder explained. Researchers worked over two days to create a protective cast around the tusk for transport. After covering the fossil in plaster-soaked burlap strips, Schroeder's group then constructed a frame around the ranch discovery before hauling it to SRSU for further analysis. Although multiple mammoth and mastodon species existed across modern North America until roughly 12,000 years ago, few of the elephant relatives ever migrated into West Texas. According to Schroeder, only a single mammoth tusk excavated from the Trans-Pecos region has ever been carbon-dated—and that happened over 60 years ago. Even then, the process at the time was far less accurate than dating methods used today that can narrow down an age range to within 500 years. Schroeder believes a more precise estimate for the O2 Ranch tusk should be completed within the next few months. It's too early to determine the exact mammoth species just yet. But as Gizmodo noted, the tusk possibly belonged to a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), one of the only species documented in Texas. The Columbian mammoth was a distant cousin of the more recognizable woolly mammoth, but could still grow to around 13 feet tall while weighing around 10 tons. The reasons behind their eventual extinction remain debatable, but they likely died out due to a combination of factors including climate change and human hunting. It's a bit poetic, then, that hunting is what led humans back to one of these megafauna in 2025.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A Man Stumbled Upon the Tusk of a Mammoth
A hunter on a former 272,000-acre West Texas cattle ranch stumbled upon a fossilized mammoth tusk. The ranch manager was skeptical of the claim at first, thinking it was a stump, but brought the information to archaeologists at Sul Ross State University. Texas was once a mammoth hot spot. Can a hunting trip be considered successful if your biggest prize was already dead when you found it? What if it's been dead for thousands of years? We're asking for a hunter in West Texas, who went out in hopes of bringing home some venison and instead discovered a single mammoth tusk on an expansive 272,000-acre ranch in the Chihuahuan Desert near Big Bend National Park. A hunter at the O2 Ranch came back to the ranch manager, Will Juett, with a photo rather than a 10-point buck. 'I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil,' Juett said in a statement provided by Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. 'I figured it was likely just an old stump, but imagined how great it would be if he was right.' Turns out, pretty great. Juett worked with Bryon Schroeder and Erika Blecha, archaeologists at the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross, who in turn contacted a graduate student at the University of Kansas specializing in mammoth studies. With a couple more anthropology professors in tow, a team of five traveled to the ranch to see this mysterious object in the picture. It didn't take long for experts to solve the mystery. 'The tusk was located in the drainage area of a creek bed,' said Schroeder, the director of the center. 'We realized pretty quickly there was not more to the skeleton, just an isolated tusk that had been separated from the rest of the remains.' It took the team two days to plaster-jacket the tusk, using strips of plaster covered in burlap for protection, and to build a frame to transfer the find to the Sul Ross campus. The team said carbon dating results will be available within the next few months, ideally narrowing the date of the tusk to a 500-year range. Mammoth finds aren't wildly rare in Texas. As the Smithsonian reported, there's even a Waco Mammoth National Monument, five acres of protected land established in Central Texas in 2015 to highlight the only known evidence of a nursery herd of Columbian mammoths that all died suddenly together in what researchers believe was a flash flood. The Columbian mammoth was the most likely mammoth species populating what is now Texas. Related to the woolly mammoth, the Columbian variety—which could have formed when woolly mammoths mated with an unknown line of mammoths—stood taller, up to 13 feet in height at the shoulder, and weighed up to 20,000 pounds, according to the National Park Service. Less hairy than the woolly variety, the Columbian mammoth was prominent in the southern half of North America, which included Texas. The Columbian mammoth was an herbivore, so the tusks were often used to dig up plant roots or strip bark off trees. Of course, males used the tusks as weapons, especially in the fight over females. Experts believe mammoth populations died off with the conclusion of the last ice age, possibly anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. 'Seeing that mammoth tusk just brings the ancient world to life,' Juett said. 'Now, I can't help but imagine that huge animal wandering around the hills on the O2 Ranch. My next thought is always about the people that faced those huge tusks with only a stone tool in their hand.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
‘I Couldn't Believe It.' Deer Hunter Finds Prehistoric Mammoth Tusk on West Texas Ranch
A hunter was looking for deer on a West Texas ranch last season when he came across an unusual object sticking out of a dry creek bed. The hunter told the ranch owner, Will Juett, that he thought it was some sort of fossil. Juett had his doubts, so he reached out to two people who might know more, Dr. Bryon Schroeder and archaeologist Erika Blecher with the Center for Big Bend Studies at nearby Sul Ros University. The two researchers recruited a few more experts and headed to Juett's property, the O2 Ranch, where they verified the hunter's find as a prehistoric mammoth tusk, according to a university press release. 'It paid off big time,' Juett said of his decision to bring the researchers out. 'When they confirmed what they had uncovered, I couldn't believe it.' Schroeder explained in the university's announcement that there were no other bones nearby. He called it an 'isolated tusk' that had somehow been separated from the rest of the mammoth's remains. Read Next: Alabama Fossil Hunter Finds 34-Million-Year-Old Whale Skull on Her Family Farm After unearthing the prehistoric fossil, the team spent two days covering it in protective plaster and building a frame to transport it back to the Sul Ros campus in Alpine. The tusk is now being carbon dated, and those results are expected within the next few months, the press release notes. The only other mammoth tusk that's been found in the Trans-Pecos region and carbon dated was uncovered in 1960, not long after the method was developed. 'There was a big range of error back then,' Schroeder said. 'Now we can get it down to a narrower range within 500 years.' This could help expand our understanding of mammoths in Texas and their natural history in the region. Although it's a long way from the Arctic, where most wooly mammoth bones have been found, the Lone Star State was the long-ago home of Columbian mammoths, an even larger species that roamed across North America during the last Ice Age. Columbian mammoth fossils have been unearthed in several states, including California, Utah, and Nevada, and even as far south as Costa Rica, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Read Next: The Earliest Alaskans Built Hunting Camps Along Woolly Mammoth Migration Routes One of the biggest and most interesting concentrations of mammoth bones lies in Central Texas between the Bosque and Brazos Rivers, roughly 500 miles east of the O2 Ranch. Now the site of Waco Mammoth National Monument, the protected five-acre area is where archaeologists found the first (and, so far, the only) evidence of a 'nursery herd' of Columbian mammoths. Although larger concentrations of bones have been found in other places, like South Dakota, the Waco discovery is significant because researchers now believe that all 26 of the mammoths died in a single catastrophic event — most likely a flash flood — roughly 29,000 years ago.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Rare mammoth tusk discovered in West Texas
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A hunter recently stumbled across a rare mammoth tusk as he searched for deer at a private West Texas ranch, according to a release from Sul Ross State University's Center for Big Bend Studies (CBBS) Tuesday. 'I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil,' said Will Juett, the manager of O2 Ranch where the tusk was found. 'I figured it was likely just an old stump, but imagined how great it would be if he was right.' It turns out, the hunter was right. Soon after Juett reported the find to CBBS, a team of anthropology professors and archaeological researchers descended upon the private ranch. The team quickly confirmed the hunter had, in fact, found a mammoth tusk. 'The tusk was located in the drainage area of a creek bed,' CBBS Director Dr. Byron Schroeder said. 'We realized pretty quickly there was not more to the skeleton, it was just an isolated tusk that had been separated from the rest of the remains.' CBBS said it took the researchers two days to cover the tusk in plaster-covered burlap for protection, before it was taken to Sul Ross State University to be carbon dated. Carbon dating results for the mammoth tusk will be available in the coming months, per CBBS. 'Seeing that mammoth tusk just brings the ancient world to life,' Juett said. 'Now, I can't help but imagine that huge animal wandering around the hills on the O2 Ranch. My next thought is always about the people that faced those huge tusks with only a stone tool in their hand!' This discovery marks only the second time a Trans-Pecos mammoth artifact has been carbon dated, according to Sul Ross State University. The last time somebody discovered a mammoth tusk in West Texas was reportedly in Fort Stockton during the 1960s, when carbon dating was only about 10 years old. 'There was a big range of error back then. Now we can get it down to a narrower range within 500 years,' Schroeder said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
