Perfect story for a Sunday! Original article posted here.
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A couple in Las Vegas will have to wait to finish their pool after construction workers unearthed an ancient set of bones dating back to the Ice Age.
Matt Perkins and his husband Joshua Anghel, who recently moved from Washington state to a newly built home in Nevada, said they were stunned to find police and crime scene investigators at their home on Monday after being alerted about the bones.
‘The pool guy said he was going to come to check out the pool,’ Perkins, 35, told KTNV-TV. ‘We assume that was normal, we wake up and he’s out front with police.’
The pool builders discovered the bones about five feet (1.5 meters) below ground.
After an investigation, police said the bones did not belong to a human and raised no law enforcement concerns.
A couple in Las Vegas will have to wait to continue building their pool after construction workers unearthed a set of bones dating back to the Ice Age
Nevada Science Center Research Director Joshua Bonde said the bones are between 6,000 and 14,000 years old and are those of a horse or similar large mammal
Bonde said the area where they were found was fed by natural springs and served as a watering spot for wildlife in the arid Mojave Desert about 14,000 years ago
Nevada Science Center Research Director Joshua Bonde said the bones are between 6,000 and 14,000 years old and are those of a horse or similar large mammal.
To be considered a fossil, the bones would have to be at least 10,000 years old Bonde said, adding that scientists would need to use carbon dating to figure out if the bones qualify.
Bonde said the area where they were found was fed by natural springs and served as a watering spot for wildlife in the arid Mojave Desert about 14,000 years ago.
The backyard discovery came near Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, where rare fossils such as mammoths have been unearthed before.
The pool builders discovered the bones about five feet (1.5 meters) below ground. After an investigation, police said the bones did not belong to a human and raised no law enforcement concerns
To be considered a fossil, the bones would have to be at least 10,000 years old Bonde said, adding that scientists would need to use carbon dating to figure out if the bones qualify
Matt Perkins (left) and his husband Joshua Anghel, who recently moved from Washington state to a newly built home in Nevada, said police and crime scene investigators showed up at their home on Monday to analyze the bones
‘If people are digging in their backyard, it shouldn’t be a surprise when they hit something,’ Bonde said.
He also noted that under Nevada law, fossils belong to the owners of the property they are discovered on.
Perkins is now deciding how best to preserve the fossil.
This is so exciting because – why? – because it will put to rest forever the controversy of whether all “wild” (some insist “feral”) wild horses are all descended from escaped horses belonging to Spanish explorers. Some no doubt are. Based on human migratory patterns over the millenia (not to mention extremely ancient far eastern countries’ art, which I know is not exactly “scientific” but does indicate possibilities, horses were here in North America and did not “disappear” in prehistoric times as many claim. I am hopeful that there can be some DNA available from those remains to match with modern horses especially Appaloosa horses. I am hopeful there will be some validation of all this. The same type of validation that recently was applied to the history of canine domestication!