Colby Site (Pleistocene of the United States)

Where: Washakie County, Wyoming (44.0° N, 107.9° W: paleocoordinates 44.0° N, 107.9° W)

• coordinate stated in text

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Late/Upper Pleistocene (0.1 - 0.0 Ma)

• "A mammoth vertebra... was radiocarbon dated" at "11,200 +/- 200 years old"; the alluvium "varied from about 1 to 3 m in depth and up to 6 m wide"

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: fluvial; shale

• "in an old arroyo which is centered in a small dendritic drainage basin"
• "alluvium" on top of the "variegated shale" of the Willwood Formation

Size class: macrofossils

• "contains parts of at least six mammoths... Most pieces were complete" and one partial skeleton "remained in an articulated position"; "A humerus from an ungulate" was modified to "form a possible scraping tool" and "A camel radius... demonstrates and unmistakable green bone break" but the mammoth bones "are too deteriorated to retain cutting and chopping marks"; there is a "fluted projectile point" close to the bottom of a pile of mammoth bones and others are present at the site

Preservation: anthropogenic

Reposited in the UW

Primary reference: G. C. Frison. 1976. Cultural activity associated with prehistoric mammoth butchering and processing. Science 194:728-730 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: archaeological analysis

PaleoDB collection 79626: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 14.03.2008

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Mammalia
 Proboscidea - Elephantidae
"Mammuthus (Parelephas) columbi" = Mammuthus columbi
"Mammuthus (Parelephas) columbi" = Mammuthus columbi Falconer 1857 Columbian mammoth
"Mammuthus (Parelephas) columbi columbi"
 Artiodactyla - Camelidae
Camelidae indet. Gray 1821 camel
"camel radius"