Workers discover extinct pig during excavation
A ancient revelation surfaced in the morning light last week at the Pantex Plant. Construction workers were excavating the site of a new high explosive pressing facility and decided to call it a day.
When the crew came back in the morning, they saw fragments of a prehistoric pig staring back at them.
Don Lankford, a project contractor, said the bones were embedded about 8 feet down in the walls of the excavation.
“If we’d have taken another bucket of dirt out of the wall of that pit, we’d have never known they (the bones) were there,” Lankford said.
“The next morning, the light was hitting the bones just right, and one of the workers spotted them.”
He said the massive excavator bucket would certainly have destroyed the bone fragments if it had taken another chunk out of the wall.
Dr. Gerald Schultz, a geology professor at West Texas A&M University, identified the bones as belonging to a Platygonus, an extinct prehistoric pig related to a modern javelina.
Platygonus became extinct at least 11,000 years ago, but the bones could be as old as 23 million years old, Schultz said.
Monica Graham, the Pantex Plant’s historian, teamed with a wildlife biologist and a geologist to excavate the bones, said B&W Pantex spokesman Bill Cunningham.
Author: Bobby Cervantes | Source: Amarillo [November 04, 2011]
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| A worker brushes away dirt to uncover bones embedded at the construction site of a high explosive pressing facility at the Pantex Plant [Credit:: Amarillo] |
Don Lankford, a project contractor, said the bones were embedded about 8 feet down in the walls of the excavation.
“If we’d have taken another bucket of dirt out of the wall of that pit, we’d have never known they (the bones) were there,” Lankford said.
“The next morning, the light was hitting the bones just right, and one of the workers spotted them.”
He said the massive excavator bucket would certainly have destroyed the bone fragments if it had taken another chunk out of the wall.
Dr. Gerald Schultz, a geology professor at West Texas A&M University, identified the bones as belonging to a Platygonus, an extinct prehistoric pig related to a modern javelina.
Platygonus became extinct at least 11,000 years ago, but the bones could be as old as 23 million years old, Schultz said.
Monica Graham, the Pantex Plant’s historian, teamed with a wildlife biologist and a geologist to excavate the bones, said B&W Pantex spokesman Bill Cunningham.
Author: Bobby Cervantes | Source: Amarillo [November 04, 2011]
