Snowmass Village's Ice Age Bones

Yesterday we drove to Snowmass Village to see an exhibit of Ice Age bones that have been pulled from the reservoir-in-construction site over the last 6-8 months. They will soon be sent to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature for research and hopefully, display. But first, here is a view of the back seat as we drove up:

Corbin and Zack

and Michaela. She said it was fun, but you'd never know it by the look on her face.

View of Mt. Sopris.

And finally, the bones! Acetabulum is part of the pelvic bones. In another photo (2 down) you can see the other side of this bone and the ball socket where the femur bone's ball fits.

Those are TOE bones. Huge toes!

The ball socket.

Sacrum is part of the lower end of the vertebral column.

Thoracic vertebrae of a mammoth. The triangular hole on the left end is where the spinal cord would go through. We wondered at the height of the protuberance above that (extending to the lower right in the photo) and later figured out that that massive bony ridge is there to support the muscles that help move the massive beast's back and hold up the massive head (see the baby mammoth "puppet" in photos in the next post). During dinner, it occurred to me that that line of muscles would correlate to the loin of a deer or elk (I've butchered a few of those beasties, and know that the loin is the choicest meat). This particular bone ridge was about 18" long; talk about a steak! Bacon-wrapped fillet mignon, anyone? You'd need the whole pig!