A cool find for a ten year old. In the Organs.
This isn't the first time a stegomastodon has been found in New Mexico. In 2014, a bachelor party stumbled across a nearly intact fossil that was collected by the New Mexico Natural History Museum.
Coming across a stegomastodon fossil is considered a rare find. Lucas explained that fossils like those belonging to mammoths are relatively abundant in western portions of North America but for reasons not quite known, stegomastodons are less frequently found. According to Lucas, only a couple hundred have been found in the world.
One theory for why stegomastodons went extinct correlates to the arrival of mammoths.
Lucas's theory is that the ancient animals couldn't compete with mammoths. Both animals grazed on their surroundings, and could have competed for resources.
Houde theorized that climate change could have caused the animal's demise.
This isn't the first time a stegomastodon has been found in New Mexico. In 2014, a bachelor party stumbled across a nearly intact fossil that was collected by the New Mexico Natural History Museum.
Coming across a stegomastodon fossil is considered a rare find. Lucas explained that fossils like those belonging to mammoths are relatively abundant in western portions of North America but for reasons not quite known, stegomastodons are less frequently found. According to Lucas, only a couple hundred have been found in the world.
One theory for why stegomastodons went extinct correlates to the arrival of mammoths.
Lucas's theory is that the ancient animals couldn't compete with mammoths. Both animals grazed on their surroundings, and could have competed for resources.
Houde theorized that climate change could have caused the animal's demise.
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