Waco Mammoth National Monument

Following the direction in the enabling legislation, Waco Mammoth National Monument officially received a donation of fossil and associated documents from Baylor University. The formal partnership between the National Park Service and Baylor University is successfully supporting the growth of a research program focused on the Late Pleistocene in central Texas.

The mammoths of Waco Mammoth National Monument have undoubtedly changed the way people view these Ice Age creatures. Through the discovery of the first and only Columbian mammoth nursery herd, the public is provided a glimpse of what life was like for these animals through their habits and social structure.

The Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago [MYA] through today) is the "Age of Mammals." North America’s characteristic landscapes began to develop during the Cenozoic. Birds and mammals rose in prominence after the extinction of giant reptiles. Common Cenozoic fossils include cat-like carnivores and early horses, as well as ice age woolly mammoths.

Leonardo Maduro-Salvarrey was recruited as an interpretation and education intern at Waco Mammoth National Monument during 2022. Leo helped to coordinate educational outreach to Spanish speaking visitors to the monument interested in learning about the fossils.

Waco Mammoth National Monument was proclaimed a unit of the National Park Service in July 2015 to protect and interpret an assemblage of mammoths believed to represent a nursery herd. The first paleontologist for the monument, Lindsey Yann, was hired in January 2020 to help promote scientific research, resource management and public education.

Crocodylomorphs, including crocodylians and their extinct relatives, are known from body and trace fossils found in more than a dozen units of the National Park Service. The records range in age from the Late Triassic to the Pleistocene and include type specimens for five species, among them the giant Deinosuchus riograndensis from the Cretaceous of Big Bend National Park.

Each park-specific page in the NPS Geodiversity Atlas provides basic information on the significant geologic features and processes occurring in the park. Links to products from Baseline Geologic and Soil Resources Inventories provide access to maps and reports.

The year was 1978. Two teenage boys were hunting for arrowheads in a creek bed on the outskirts of Waco, Texas. While they were unsuccessful with their pursuit for Native American artifacts that day, their quest would not go unrewarded. They would uncover a mystery so huge, you might even refer to it as a “mammoth-sized” find that was the only one of its kind!