Located near Hot Springs, SD, Mammoth Site is the world's largest mammoth research facility.
This was the site of a 60-foot deep sinkhole 26000 years ago. The mammoths were attracted by the warm spring, slipped in, and couldn't get back out.
The site was discovered fairly recently - in 1974.
Sixty mammoths have been found here in this tiny area!
We had a short tour where the guide used the kids to demonstrate the size of the bones. This is a femur - upper leg bone.
And this is a jaw bone! Of course these are replicas, so I guess they weren't very heavy...
There was a nice museum, in the same building as the dig site. It was definitely worth the visit. It reminded me of the Ashfall Fossil Beds, which I visited in 2010, but their site was 12 MILLION years old. That post is
here.
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