Digging Snowmastodon: Discovering an Ice Age World in the Colorado Rockies

In October 2010, a bulldozer operator working at the base of the Snowmass ski area in Colorado's Rocky Mountains uncovered the skeleton of a young female mammoth. Over the next 11 months, this find would yield a treasure trove of amazingly well-preserved ice age fossils - more than 5,000 bones of over 40 kinds of animals - and would change forever our understanding of alpine life in the ice age. The Snowmastodon Project's two lead scientists tell the dynamic story of this discovery and dig: the excitement, emotion, and the colorful cast of characters who made the project a success.