Ordinary people are digging up Ice Age giants in city backyards

A walk through a construction site or a crumbling riverbank in Washington state can suddenly bridge a gap of twenty thousand years. While we often imagine paleontology happening in remote deserts, the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site and similar urban projects rely on local residents to uncover the remains of Columbian mammoths. These massive creatures stood fourteen feet tall at the shoulder and weighed as much as eight tons, yet their presence is often signaled by nothing more than a subtle discoloration in the soil or a fragment of ivory no larger than a coin.