Mammoth Bone May 23, 2010

Josh Brandenburg, a 12 year-old from Greenup, Illinois discovered a large bone on a gravel bar in the Embarras River on the 4th of July, 2009. After some initial research, Josh and his family believed the bone to be from a mammoth and subsequently contacted the Illinois State Museum. Museum paleontologists examined the bone and agreed that it was an atlas vertebra from one of the largest mammoths found in Illinois. Two species of mammoths were present in the state during the Pleistocene, the steppe-tundra dwelling Woolly Mammoth, and the parkland-adapted Jefferson's Mammoth. Both species went extinct 12,000 years ago. The bone can be seen in the lobby of the Museum,