Scientists Show Off Ice Age Fossils In Denver

DENVER (CBS4) - Thousands of bones have made their way from Colorado's high country to Denver, and on Tuesday scientists at the Museum of Nature & Science showed off the fossils.

The Ice Age fossils were found in the Zeigler Reservoir in Snowmass Village, but now they are being cared for behind the scenes at the museum.

Now most of the found fossils have been moved to Denver, which included plastering the skeleton of one large mammoth together for the move.

"We know for sure it's got a skull, a tusk, a scapula and several other bones. But when we find the big interlocked skeleton like this, we often like to move the skeleton as one piece as opposed to piecing it apart bone by bone," Dr. Kirk Johnson with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science said. "You never know exactly in these complicated things what you will lose by pulling the bones apart one by one."

More than 4,800 bones were pulled from the site representing more than 26 species.

The museum scientists and volunteers will now spend months preserving the fossils, and scientists from around the world are expected to come to Denver to study them.