Geomorphology Commons^™

The Moxee City (Washington) Mammoth: Morphostratigraphic, Taphonomic, And Taxonomic Considerations, Karl Lillquist, Steve Lundblad, Bax R. Barton

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

A nearly complete, but highly fractured, proboscidean tusk was unearthed during parking lot construction near Moxee City in central Washington in May 2001. Schreger angle analysis revealed that the tusk was from a mammoth. AMS radiocarbon dating of the tusk established that the mammoth died 14,570 ¹⁴C yr BP. The age, combined with the biogeography of proboscidean finds in the Pacific Northwest, suggests the tusk is from a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). The condition of the tusk and its association with basalt and crystalline erratics suggest that a locally derived tusk was swept up in the advancing …