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n By Mary Manning It’s. not. Jurassic .Park, But local am ateur fossil hunters believe they’ve found a major link to history in a pit north of-has Vegas. An ancient mammoth expert who visited the site Wednesday agreed that teeth and tusks discovered by the am ateur archaeologists may prove to be a significant find. Larry Agenbroad of Northern Arizona University acts as a consultant to the Fossil Finders Ck«a of Southern Nevada, which u si earthed the archeological treasure in December. “They’ve done a w Job,” Agenbroad said, .......... knee-deep in a pit with about a dozen club members. The site has.yiel.ded remnants o f up to 30 mammoths, camels and tw o | kinds o f horses. The exciting aspect o f this discovery is the .age range of The youngest could be 4 years old, the eldest 48. Lived into their 60s. “Right now it looks like a pile of scrap, but you might find a full skull, both sets of teeth. That would be very significant,” Agenbroad said. The particular mammoth creating all the excitement was probably 26 years old, stood 11 feet high at the shoulder and weighed d ose to seven tons, Agenbroad estimated. Club members learned how to preserve the fragile scraps of Ivory and bone with a liquid that BB M l * syrup, n Charlotte Show ell, who spotted.: thetw o ? tus ks ou. a cold December day, painstakingly brushed the preservative on the. eight mches of exposed ivory as she. knelt in: :the du.st,; ^ “We were - working from the top level/ down when pieces of bone: appeared flattened," Showell said. “I felt it might be a tusk," She was right. “I scream ed for LaRae 3ringhurst)," Showell said, referring to one o f the club’s leaders. “It’s a unique experience. This is a piece of history, It goes’way back." When he began his career, Agenbroad tracked traces of prehistoric. ..'people around the because the younger mammoths got stuck in mud or quicksand, Agenbroad said. Water also attracted old, injured or sick animals who were seeking water, *i. December 1991, o: .ammoth traces had b< discovered between Lake Mead and the Gulf of California, he said. Today there are 15 sites. “The Las Vegas area is rich in mammoths .' .because ? they came to drink the spring water” be springs in 1.954, when development drained the yalley’s natural artesian waters. « to find the people who hunted them,” he said. “I switched to the hunted, because I -'became Mammoths probably followed riversbeforetheybecaxne extinct l l , f i |f i ; - ^ ^ |^ . i ^ g ! p b r # d : is . tracking down rem ains 'along ? the Colorado River, I because he suspebtsSitcould.have Been a #aht:m am m othPighw ay:' - Areas like Las Vegas are filled with male bone fragments, MAMMQTH T3ETH are measured wth special calipers W