Texas Fun Fact | Waco, Texas
Waco Has an Ice Age Nursery, Preserved in Fossils
Near the Bosque River in Waco, scientists uncovered something extraordinary: the only known nursery herd of Columbian mammoths, according to the National Park Service.
A nursery herd wasn’t a building. It was a family group of female mammoths and their young, preserved in the fossil record.
The discovery began in 1978 with a single bone. Excavations eventually revealed a much larger site, where visitors can still see fossil remains in their original positions inside the Dig Shelter at Waco Mammoth National Monument.
And the scientific investigation continues. Recent research challenges the earlier explanation that a single catastrophic flood deposited the fossils now protected inside the shelter.
Tens of thousands of years after these animals lived, their remains continue to reveal new evidence about Texas’s prehistoric past.
Sources
- National Park Service — Mammoth Herd
- National Park Service — History & Culture
- National Park Service — A Mammoth Donation and Nearly 50 Years of Fossil Discovery
Source note: The 2015 history page supports the discovery and preservation history. The 2025 research account and June 2026 Mammoth Herd page provide the newer interpretation of deposits inside the Dig Shelter. Those findings do not settle all questions about the original nursery herd excavated outside the present shelter.
The Texas Public Record
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