The good news? The skull of a mastodon-like animal was unearthed in recent weeks in a dirt mining pit near Mesquite, certainly not an everyday occurrence.
The bad news? It crumbled after researchers tried to excavate it and will have to be painstakingly reassembled, said New Mexico State University biologist and Paleozoic museum curator Peter Houde.
"We have a big job of putting it together again," he said.
The fossil, likely between 1 million and 2 million years old, was discovered by workers at the pit, owned by Las Cruces developer Eddie Binns.
The skull is that of a spiral-tusked animal, a member of the genus Cuvieronius, that also resembled an elephant. It was 8-foot-long, prior to crumbling, and lacks a jaw.
Workers excavated much the fossil before Houde reached the specimen. While Cuvieronius skulls might seem to be a sturdy, solid mass, they're actually peppered with air cavities. Without these spaces, Houde said, the animal's head would have been too heavy for it to move. The air spaces make such specimens delicate. Plus, he said, the fossil is made up of much of the original calcium phosphate that helped make up the bone, also making it fragile.
When Houde first visited the fossil, he said, much of the dirt surrounding the specimen and supporting it, especially toward the back of the head, had already been removed by gravel pit workers. He said he and helpers tried to restabilize it with a substance, akin to glue, that adds strength.
But, to apply the stabilizer, the bone had to dry out - difficult because it was reburied each night to prevent vandalism and theft, he said.
Ideally, Houde said, the discoverers would have left the specimen alone, for it to be excavated within the surrounding dirt. Still, Houde said, the specimen did belong to Binns, who wasn't obligated to turn it over to New Mexico State University, and the department was grateful to get it.
"He's an alum of NMSU; he has a real commitment to the community and wanted to see it stay here," he said.
Houde said most large-scale fossil finds locally occur on state or federal land, the repository for which is in Albuquerque. Some specimens are loaned from there to the University of Texas at El Paso.
"That's what makes this in many ways significant to us - almost anything else found goes off to distant places," he said.
Houde cited the example of a spectacular ground sloth skeleton, with bits of hair and skin left, that was found in Aden Crater west of Las Cruces in the late '20s or early '30s. The specimen is now housed in the Peabody Museum in New Haven, Conn.
"It's on display, but nobody here will see it, unless you go to New Haven," he said.
Undergraduate biology student Drew Gentry, 25, helped Houde with the work, about once or twice a week for the past month. He, too, said the fossil was delicate, and "things did not turn out the way we'd hoped."
"New Mexico State doesn't have the active program in paleontology other schools in the area do. We were working with our own resources and our own labor," said Gentry, who said he plans to eventually seek a doctoral degree in paleontology. "With more resources, time and people, things would have turned out differently. We didn't have a lot of things we needed."
Cuvieronius
Houde said Cuvieronius was a stocky animal with teeth adapted to eating grasses. Specimens are found in the fossil record from various locales around the world and date back as early as 25 million years ago, Houde said. It was believed to have gone extinct in North America earlier than in South America, where it's known to have been hunted by people. Most specimens are from South America.
The recent specimen, known as the Binns Cuvieronius, roamed the ancient Rio Grande, Houde said. However it died, it was likely carried by the river and caught on a sandbar.
Houde said he hopes to eventually hang the skull in an atrium of the biology department in Foster Hall, beneath a large whale skeleton that's currently there. It will be useful to encourage public interest in fossils and could be used by researchers, he said.
Restoring the skull could be a lengthy process.
Gentry said it will likely be a "multi-year process," probably long after he has graduated and moved on from the university.
"I gained that patience is the most valuable resource in paleontology," he said of his work in the recent dig. Patience is the key word in any situation. Never rush anything. It's the greatest resource you can use."
Author: Diana M. Alba | Source: Las Cruces Sun-News [September 19, 2010]