Mammoth Site Photo

Examining Fossil Teeth at the Mammoth Site

Examining the Fossils

The fossils are being examined at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. Their staff has years of experience examining the earth’s records of recent mammals such as mammoths, the short faced bear, and the recently discovered American lion.

NPS Photo by Tom Farrell

Moving a Large Jacketed Fossil into a Litter

Fossils or Bones?

The records at the Mammoth Site are not fossils like the White River Group fossils found at Wind Cave National Park. They are still bones, but their treatment is much the same as fossils. The bones at the Mammoth Site are about 26,000 years old where the fossils found in the park are about 30 million years old.

NPS Photo by Tom Farrell

Securing the Fossil in the Litter

Lessons from a Lost World

These Wind Cave fossils reveal to us a past environment of the park. By protecting these fragile remnants, we can learn about a world that now only exists in fragments of fossils lying exposed on a South Dakota prairie.