Rare camel fossil unearthed in southeast Gilbert

When paleontologist Robert McCord comes to Gilbert, he knows he’ll probably dig up something interesting. As chief curator of natural history at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa, McCord has been called in at least twice to excavate prehistoric fossils unearthed at Gilbert constructions sites.

“It seems like there should be more,” McCord said.

Since the late 1990s, researchers have found four fossilized bone fragments in Gilbert. Two of those finds have been identified as Columbian mammoths — less hairy, larger relatives of woolly mammoths.

But to scientists, a fossilized bone fragment discovered at the site of a future water treatment facility in southeast Gilbert in March may be the most significant find in the area.

The bone fragment is now believed to come from the left distal humerus — upper arm bone — of the ancient Camelops, an extinct species of camels.

“It probably looked a heck of a lot like a modern camel,” McCord said. “A really big modern camel though.”

The camel grew to about 7 feet tall at its shoulders and appeared in the late Pliocene epoch, which extended from about 5 million years ago to nearly 2 million years ago. It survived until about 10,000 years ago, during the Earth’s last ice age.

For comparison, dinosaurs typically depicted in cartoons and movies became extinct about 65 million years ago.

“People probably saw these (camels),” McCord said.

The bone was found about a mile and a half from where construction crews found “Tuskers,” a fossilized mammoth discovered about two years ago that became a virtual town mascot. Town officials held a contest to name the fossilized animal and eventually settled on Tuskers.

The town later named Discovery Park to commemorate Tuskers’ nearby final resting place.

“That’s why we named it Discovery Park,” Councilman Les Presmyk said. “Though that wasn’t the exact site the mammoth discovery was made, but it was close enough.”

That case was also the first time Gilbert tested its “Mammoth Law,” an ordinance passed in 1997 that said construction work must stop in areas where “features of archeological, paleontological or historical interest are encountered or unearthed,” to allow for excavation and study.

Without the stipulation, paleontological remains found on private property belong to the property owner, who isn’t required to report or donate them for study.

Mort Moosavy, an inspector with Carollo Engineers assigned to the project, didn’t know about the law when he noticed the whitish bone fragments that contrasted with the surrounding reddish soil.

But he did exactly what the ordinance calls for by contacting area researchers, who eventually connected him with McCord at the Arizona Museum of Natural History.

Moosavy at first thought the pieces looked like examples of ancient pottery lying toward the bottom of a 15-foot-deep trench — until he took a closer look.

“Immediately I knew it was a fossilized bone,” Moosavy said.