Woolly mammoth bones found during construction work at US university football stadium

Construction workers undertaking an expansion of a US university football stadium have discovered bones, believed to belong to prehistoric mammals, including the giant femur of a woolly mammoth.  

The crews found the large bone in a three metre deep plot on Oregon State University’s campus and work was immediately halted. 

Associate professor of anthropology at the university Loren Davis was called to the site after the discovery was made.

“Some of the bones are not in very good shape, but some are actually quite well preserved,” he said.

Further excavation revealed more bones, assumed to belong to a bison and some kind of camel or horse.

Professor Davis said the area the stadium sits on is believed to have once been a bog or a marsh where animals that were sick would go to die.

The university plans to soak the discovered bones in water to prevent further deterioration and send some out for carbon dating to test their age.

Professor Davis and his students will also continue excavating a large pile of dirt pulled from the site where more bones are believed to be buried.

“It’ll be a great learning experience for them, to learn how to identify extinct animal bones,” he said.

“It’s really an amazing find.”