TREE-RING ANALYSIS AT THE SNOWMASTODON PROJECT SITE
During the 2010 excavation of the Snowmastodon Project site,
scientists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science recovered
dozens of remarkably well preserved logs, branches, and other wood
remnants. On May 5, 2011, tree-ring scientists Peter Brown,
PhD, Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, and Jeffrey Lukas, PhD,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, visited the Museum
to cut sections of the wood and to begin preparing them for
Based on their preliminary analysis, Brown and Lukas noticed
that many of the recovered logs, despite their strange shapes,
appeared to be from whole-log cross-sections that simply got
squished through time.
"That means that the ring sequences extend around the entire
circumference, and we might get 'dates' of death for the tree,"
said Dr. Steve Nash, curator of archaeology.
Also, Brown and Lukas noticed that there are many different
kinds of beetle galleries on the wood specimens. They spoke with Frank Krell, PhD,
curator of entomology at the Museum, who said that with the
information available, they should be able to determine which
species of beetle made those galleries tens of thousands of years
Finally, Brown believes that some of the wood samples have
either forest fire or avalanche scars on them.
"If this is the case, we might be able to determine how common
fires and avalanches were when these trees got submerged in the
lake," said Nash.
The Snowmass Village excavation team goes back into the field
this May. They will collect more wood and branches during the
six-week long excavation, while Brown, Lukas, and Nash continue
their analysis and put together more pieces of the puzzle that will
help describe what this ancient ecosystem might have looked