CAS CONNECT 2014

PHOTO / CARLOS CORDOVA 14 excavation through word of mouth. The bones were donated to OSU by the site landowner, an OSU alumnus. OSU’s involvement can be described as a matter of happenstance, says Dale Lightfoot, head of OSU’s geography department who has been involved in orchestrating the big picture. Everything happened at the just the right time; Lightfoot credits this to Cox’s and Cordova’s interest and expertise. This project is extremely significant for OSU because the university doesn’t have a specialty that focuses on research involved with paleontology. OSU has only been able to take on this project because of Cordova’s experience with mineral- ized plant remains (phytoliths and fossil pollen) and Cox’s interests and skills. Cordova specializes in geoarcheol- ogy, the application of earth sciences to archaeology, and paleo-ecology, the study of past ecosystems. He’s generally inter- ested in ecosystems that existed in North America, particularly in the Great Plains, from the Pleistocene to the Holocene period, and how the climate, vegeta- tion and animals have adapted or gone extinct, as well as the role humans and global climate played. For Cordova, the Helena mammoth excavation and data analysis serves as a data point that he can use for his broader project. With the Helena mammoth, Cordova conducted research similar to what he’s been gather- ing for North American plants, animals and soil for relating them to those of southern Africa.