James Bristle, who was digging a trench with a backhoe to install a drainage pipe, struck a 3-foot-long bone buried about 8 feet underground on his farm. He contacted the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, from which Professor Daniel Fisher and about 15 students showed up and began excavating the site.
They soon discovered the bones belonged to a prehistoric mammoth that likely lived 11,700 to 15,000 years ago. Bristle donated the bones to the university for further study, who, in their gratitude, named it the Bristle Mammoth. The team believes the mammoth may have been butchered and stored as meat for ancient humans.
