Oregon Public Broadcasting

There are some big bones being dug up near Kennewick, in Eastern Washington.  The skeleton of a mammoth was discovered there recently and is now owned by a Mid-Columbia non-profit. The foundation plans to let students excavate the bones. Correspondent Anna King explains.

They want to build a field classroom around the dig, to get kids excited about math and science. One of the adult scientists working on the project is Bax Barton of the Burke Museum in Seattle.

He says mammoths were plentiful in the Northwest. But he says this skeleton is rare because itís well preserved and complete. He says that could help scientists learn more about why mammoths and mastodons went extinct.

Barton: "I'm interested in mammoth finds and mastodon finds to see if there is any evidence to see if they were hunted at all in the area. And if there is, as I believe, very little evidence that they were hunted then it suggests that climate change and habitat destruction or alteration led to their extinction."  

Barton says the bones are between 12,000 and 19,000 years old. The foundation plans to dig up the bones this spring.