Mammoth bones found under Oregon State’s stadium

Construction workers excavating land for an expansion project at Oregon State’s football stadium dug up what is believed to be the bone of an animal from the Ice Age. The school is expanding the Valley Football Center and crews were digging up an area in the north end zone of the stadium that seats almost 46,000 and will house around 55,000 once expansion is complete.

Animals often searched for a body of water when they were sick as a place for them to die, so it would not be unusual to find bones in a group like this, said a prepared release, by the anthropology department at Oregon State.

“Some of the bones are not in very good shape, but some are actually quite well preserved”, he said.

According to Davis, the discovery of the ancient bones is not surprising in the Willamette Valley.

Officials say the discovery will not stop the project from moving forward – they have been cleared to continue construction.

Crews have moved to other areas of the construction project while Davis and others take a closer look at the find.

The university is treating the area as a paleontological site and it is now closed off to public to keep it from being disturbed.

Further testing will help determine the bones’ exact age.

“There are quite a few bones, and dozens of pieces”, said Davis. When a worker first found the femur, work immediately stopped. OR has no special regulations governing the preservation of paleontology finds.

“We believe we have an intact femur from a mammoth”, OSU spokesman Steve Clark told the Gazette-Times on Tuesday.

“Our archaeologist believes this could have been the location of a pond, a watering hole for these animals”, Clark said, “or a place where they came to die”.