Mesa Camelops Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

simpjkee: Not much room to work with in order to move this cache so I am going to archive it. I'm hoping to reconsider once the construction is finished, but for now, it's going the way of the, well.... camelops.

Thanks all for visiting. I appreciate it.

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Hidden : 3/31/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:






Though seemingly just another Wally World parking lot, this lot was actually a paleontological excavation site! In April of 2007 a valley nursery owner (and sometimes paleontologist) was hired to plant the orange trees you see bunched in the parking lot. Some of the trees can easily be seen South of the cache site at the Lindsay Road parking lot entrance, and also NW of the cache site at the McKellips Road parking lot entrance. While planting these trees, the nursery owner dumped a load of soil from the backhoe and was surprised to see bones mixed in with the soil. Being a sometimes paleontologist, the nursery owner spent the next few days carefully excavating the bones.

It turned out that the bones were from a prehistoric animal named "Camelops"! As the name implies, it was similar to our modern-day camel. Unlike our modern day camels, Camelops was far taller, reaching 7 feet at the shoulders. It is believed that Camelops lived only in North America from about 2.5 million years ago up until about 8,000 years ago. Camelops was an herbivore and dined on plants that were present in prehistoric Mesa, AZ.

The particular Camelops fossil found within feet of the cache was later dubbed "Wal-Mart Camel". It is believed to have been a juvenile, about the size of a young horse, when it passed away between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. The Camelops's teeth, lower jaw, hoof, humerus, scapula, and vertebrae were excavated.

This cache is dedicated to the Camelops and the valley nursery owner who discovered the fossils. I want to thank the Camelops for taking care of prehistoric Mesa, AZ and allowing us modern day humans to call it home. I also want to thank the valley nursery owner who discovered the fossils and spent his weekend excavating the bones for the fossil record.

Be sure to check out my other cache Gilbert Camelops! There is room for expansion, but I think of these two caches less as a series and more as a duo. With these caches, I hope to raise awareness for these paleontological finds and suggest that there are potentially hundreds of undiscovered fossil sites in our area. I hope that as we continue to build, care is taken to preserve these fossils in the fossil record for future generations to study.


Here are some interesting links for further information about Camelops:
Camelops Wikipedia Entry


On a sidenote, I proudly obtained this decon container from Team Evil Fish by winning the raffle at the Birth of Evil event. Thanks TEF!

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