Primary mapping and stratigraphic data and field methods for the Snowmastodon Project

Abstract

During the Snowmastodon Project, many different people collected data for a wide array of purposes under a variety of conditions. Early in the process and in an attempt to provide project-wide consistency, Kirk Johnson appointed Carol Lucking as the project’s data manager both in the field and the lab. She was responsible for using GIS to create maps on an ongoing basis throughout the project. Jeff Pigati agreed to measure stratigraphic sections and coordinate the collection of various nonvertebrate samples to make sure that all resulting data could be plotted on common diagrams. Kirk Johnson was onsite for the entire project and measured the basin margin stratigraphy on a daily basis as it was destroyed by the digging teams. In the fall of 2010, we treated the upper part of the site (which included discrete excavations for the mammoth, deer, and bison skeletons) as an archaeological excavation and the lower part of the site (which contained isolated mastodon, ground sloth, and bison bones) as a construction salvage site.