Utah family stumble across Ice Age fossil during garden renovations



Utah family stumble across Ice Age fossil during garden renovations

Usually, when one goes to renovate their home they do not think that the drama would extend far beyond foundation issues or design disagreements. However, one couple that decided to redo their home and back yard came upon a discovery in the back yard that was as unexpected as can be. As soon as the renovations in the outdoor area of their home began, of which the couple did much themselves, they had just begun with the removal of dirt when a few feet down, they hit something hard. Upon more delicate excavation by the couple, they realized that they had unearthed bones. They continued to dig to see if there was more and indeed there was. What they ended up finding was confusing as they could not place the bones they had found to an animal they recognized, so they had no idea what they had found, making this literal uncovering increasingly interesting. By the time they finished digging up the bones, they had shed light onto a whole skeleton; of what they did not know.

Back yard discoveries


Laura and Bridger Hill, the couple who found the strange bones, are not alone in their find of interesting and very old items in their back yard as they go down the path of renovation and home improvement.

It is quite a trend these days for people to renovate their homes in a more do-it-yourself fashion, thanks to the plethora of home improvement shows that inspire us all to make our home more beautiful. However, most do not make such a discovery.


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Valuable finds


An example of a meaningful find would be one from 2018 where newspapers from 60 years ago were uncovered in near perfect condition in Arizona. Thanks to the dry weather conditions and the fact that they were left in a basement and not outdoors. The newspapers were taken to experts in the field so that they would be able to control any damage that was done to them.

They check them over, try and restore them and then preserve them in some way. This all helps to maintain items that old and fragile. Finding old newspapers may not sound like much but preserving history is as important as working on the future.
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Old wine


Another incredibly interesting find happened right on the ground of the Liberty Hall Museum in New Jersey. While renovations were taking place on the premises, the crew discovered incredibly old bottles of wine hidden behind a wall in the building. The wine was so old that it was bottled back when the president of the United States was George Washington!
Old wine

The bottling and eventual hiding of the wine happened around the Prohibition era which makes complete sense. That being said, no one thought that they would find such a treasure behind the walls of the Liberty Hall Museum of all places!


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Unearthing


Sometimes finding old things when renovating is not as pleasant as finding wine. 200 years after Benjamin Franklin lived in a house in London, conservationists took up the renovation efforts of the property as it was decided that it would become a museum. During the renovations, the crew found no less than 15 sets of human bones that were buried in the basement of the home.

There was no thought of foul play, but rather that the bodies were used for anatomy lessons that were given by Franklin’s friend William Hewson. That is one dramatic discovery for the team working in the home.
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Ancient bones


While the last couple of discoveries we talked about were found in buildings, that is not always the case. Donald Gibson offered to build his parents a sunroom as an addition to their home in Maryland. While fossils are common in that area, what was found in the back yard were ancient bones that eventually unearthed a fully intact skeleton.

Which was not only extremely rare but so old that it was hard to tell what the bones belonged to, as it was unlike anything he had ever seen. This find showed the teeth and cartilage prior to the unearthing of the entire unit.
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Fossil origin


The skeleton that was unearthed was eventually found as one of a snaggletooth shark. This specific shark fossil is from over 15 million years ago! There had been others that were found over the years but none of them were so complete in their structure.

This skeleton was unique on its own due to the number of bones that were unearthed and preserved after so many years in the dirt. Gibson’s discovery is a perfect example of never knowing what you’re standing on.
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Fossil finds


If you are one of those folks who go out there looking for fossils and ancient artifacts, Utah is the perfect place to focus your search. The reason for Utah is the place has to do with the state having the most dinosaur habitation records in the world.

There have been 27 different dinosaur types found in the state over the course of 165 million years. Researchers believe that the salt content in the state is the reason for the attraction of the dinosaurs.
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The Utah family


When the Hill family uncovered their finding in their back yard, it was semi-expected as they live in Utah, and as we said it is rather common. The couple lives in Lehi, Utah, which used to be mostly farmland that was not dug too deeply on and therefore left the bones undisturbed for as long as they have been.

Due to the fact that the couple knew that the land used to be farmland, they thought that perhaps the skeleton is one of a cow.
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Historical significance


The Hill couple did not think that what they uncovered in the back yard had actual historical value or significance. Indeed, as soon as they uncovered it they continued with their task of laying down the grass in the surrounding area and the building of the retaining wall that they wanted in the yard.

They fully went on with their home improvement project, not realizing at all that entity they had uncovered is as rare as they come.
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Landscaping


For months, machines dealing in the construction of their home and yard would work around the bones, while children would come and touch the bones. It was not for quite some time that the Hills decide to bring in an expert to see if the bones were of anything significant.

They had no idea what to expect and it surely was not what they thought when they first discovered the bones in their soon to be refurbished back yard.
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Neighbor


The Hill couple were luckier than most, as their neighbor was an employee at Brigham Young University in Utah, a Geology professor of all things. It was this lucky stoke that had the neighbor come over to see what the couple had found on their property.

The professor looked it all over and had an inkling that this is a serious find. Initially, he thought it could be a horse or an animal from Pleistocene times.
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Utah back then


In order to understand this find, experts go back to what this land used to be like over many millennia ago. It was at that time that Lake Bonneville was in tact and the Great Salt Lake was only a minimal part of it. Lake Bonneville is an ancient lake that no longer exists and was taken up by the Great Salt Lake.

The old lake used to cover parts of Nevada and Idaho as well.
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Climate change


Before the big debate on climate change today, there were a lot of changes in the climate in Utah that affected the lake. Lake Bonneville was formed approximately 25,000 years ago and began its deterioration and eventual change into the Great Salt Lake somewhere between 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.

The change had partly to do with the climate shifts in the region over those years and the natural progression the water took with the heat.
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Ice Age remains


Utah is bountiful in fossils from ancient times, including the Ice Age. Some finds include saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths! Wasatch Front, located in Utah as well, is home to several gravel quarries that contain bones that date back to the Pleistocene era, with the gravel in question having sourced from Lake Bonneville.

It is remarkable how many ancient artifacts and bones have managed to remain intact after so many years of erosion and change.
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More bones


Another example of a great find would be the time in 1988 when a construction worker working with a bulldozer at Wasatch Plateau as a part of a project, stopped his machine when he uncovered a leg bone and part of a tusk.

Eventually, researchers and experts unearthed over 90% of a skeleton that belonged to a woolly mammoth. When carbon dating took place, the animal skeleton was dated back to over 10,000 years ago.
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Realizing the find


Once the Hills learned from their neighbor that their find was no ordinary find, it was Laura who went to the Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi to get some more information from them.
Realizing the find

It was after Laura went to them that they sent out a group of paleontologists, headed by Rick Hunter, to see the bones for themselves and come to their own expert conclusions. It was during their investigation that they realized how significant a find this is.
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The animal in question


When Hunter and his crew descended upon the bones they were almost immediately certain that the bones were not of a cow or mammoth, but rather a horse. What was truly remarkable was that the horse’s bones were nearly all intact, over 85% complete.

The reason this is a reason for celebration has to do with the fact that most bone digs yield a 20% complete range, a far cry from the near-perfect specimen here.
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Excavation


As is done, Hunter and his team needed to excavate the bones prior to moving them. It took them two days to completely excavate the bones. When they were done they measured the depth of where the skeleton lied, and that would be seven feet below.

Once the bones were loosened they were moved to a lab at the museum. It was in the lab that the paleontologists would truly be able to research these bones.
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Neighbor knowledge points


The Hill’s neighbor gets major points for being right in his initial estimate as to the animal. The skeleton that was uncovered was indeed a horse, but a very old horse. The skeleton had been dated back to between 14,000 and 16,000 years prior.
Neighbor knowledge points

The crew was also able to identify the horse as a comparable horse to today’s Shetland Pony. The small skeleton had been laying in the ground waiting for the light of day for a long time.
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Pleistocene era


A little about the Pleistocene era since it is relevant to our find. The era lasted from approximately 2.6 million years ago until around 12,000 years ago. This era saw the very last Ice Age, when ice was the dominant force on earth and conditions were rough for both plant life and animals alike.

This was long after the dinosaurs were extinct but very difficult for life to sustain itself in those conditions, as our young horse learned.
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People of earth


While this time was hard for animals and plants, it seems that homo sapiens, or us humans, began to flourish. It was during the Pleistocene time that humans started to make their mark on the world, growing in numbers and food chain.
People of earth

The rough conditions got increasingly better and humankind was able to spread to all corners of the world, giving way to the slow yet promising evolution of us humans to where we are today.
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Other creatures


While we humans were growing stronger, we were certainly not the only ones on earth. Saber-toothed Tigers and woolly mammoths were right here with us. These animals and we were walking this earth at the same time along with many other animals that have descendants on earth today, such as cows, horses, and kangaroos.
Other creatures

In addition, reptiles like the crocodile and birds like geese were prominent members of the animal kingdom then and now.
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Wiped out


While life thrived for a while, approximately 13,000 years ago there was an occurrence on earth that changed everything. Whatever did happen, which is up for debate to this day, the fact is that most of the Ice Age megafauna were gone.
Wiped out

It was also around the same time that mastodons, tigers, mammoths, and giant bears also saw the end of their days. The debate still rages on as to the cause of this extinction.