The fossil is from Jim Madson, who is a former adjunct of FHSU now residing in Utah. Madson was a good friend to the former chair of the Geosciences department - Mike Nelson, he added. Gene and Joann Fleharty, Hays, donated funds for the fossil, in honor of their children Chris and Debra. Madson actually found the specimen in Utah, Choate said. But the same species of Mammoth was very common in Kansas.
Farmers frequently find pieces of mammoth tusk or other bone when they turn up their fields.
This was a very characteristic mammal of the entire Great Plains. As opposed to the time periods depicted throughout the rest of the museum, the Mammoth is from the Pleistocene era. It is just a few thousand years ago. The mammoth is a very close relative of living elephants. They were bigger, they were shaggier and had bigger tusks.