Mammoth Skeleton Unearthed Beneath North Dakota Garage

Paleontologists are excavating a mammoth skeleton beneath a rural garage in northwestern North Dakota—and it could become one of the state’s most complete mammoth discoveries.

The first bones were uncovered in 1988 while the property owner was digging the garage foundation. Samples sent to North Dakota State University were identified as belonging to a mammoth from the Pleistocene Epoch, commonly known as the Ice Age.

The garage was completed before scientists could fully investigate the site, leaving much of the skeleton buried for decades. North Dakota Geological Survey crews later returned and began uncovering a skull and numerous additional bones.

Scientists are still working to determine the mammoth’s species and sex. It is not yet known whether the animal was a woolly mammoth or a larger Columbian mammoth. North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources