LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A brand new research provides scientists a recent have a look at what life was like within the Las Vegas valley greater than 12,000 years in the past.
Earlier than the strip, Southern Nevada was residence to ice-age animals. The brand new discovery helps to rewrite native historical past.
Tule Springs was as soon as residence to now extinct Ice Age giants – mammoths, camels, bison, and horses. New analysis reveals people have been additionally dwelling right here 1000’s of years in the past. It began again in 1933, when scientists digging north of Las Vegas made a discovery.
“One single flake. I say a flake is like a piece of stone chipped off of a tool, an ancient stone tool,” Dr. Daron Duke, principal investigator for Far Western Anthropological Analysis Group, mentioned.
That flake began many years of debate. Did individuals and ice age animals reside right here on the identical time? Greater than 50 years later, Dr. Daron Duke says superior know-how confirms the coexistence of animals and people proper right here within the valley, however there are nonetheless unanswered questions.
“What’s the rest of the story in how they lived alongside them?” Dr. Duke mentioned. “We don’t know but we’re very interested and the public is still very interested in that.”
Efforts to protect and defend this a part of Las Vegas historical past led to the creation of Tule Springs Fossil Beds Nationwide Monument and Ice Age Fossils State Park, renewing analysis and public curiosity.
“We know there’s archaeology out there and it could be very compelling archaeology like what they thought they’d find that they didn’t find. The potential still exists,” Dr. Duke mentioned. “There may be something really old going on with people alongside these now extinct animals like mammoths, camels, horses.”
The brand new research encourages much more digging and discovering at Tule Springs to uncover what Las Vegas was like earlier than the neon lights and on line casino life.
“There’s a lot of potential to learn and understand something that went on right here that’s not called the strip,” Dr. Duke mentioned.
Ice Age Fossils State Park encompasses a customer heart and strolling trails which are open to the general public. Proper now, it’s quickly closed because of the authorities shutdown.
