A mandible and a femur of a proboscidean, identified by researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in a private property in the town of San Lorenzo Toxico, municipality of Ixtlahuaca, represent the first traces of megafauna recorded in this locality in the State of Mexico .
After, at the beginning of last April, the Morales family began the construction of a cistern and, by manually digging, located the paleontological remains, at a depth of 2.20 meters, they presented the report of the event to the institute. After the archaeological inspection, specialists corroborated the discovery.
According to the archaeologist of the INAH State of Mexico Center, Ana Laura Navarro Martínez, in charge of said inspection, the need to carry out an archaeological rescue project in the coming days has been raised, in order to recover the femur and the jaw, as well as how to determine if there are more elements in the lower soil profiles.
At the moment, he details, the location of the bones – whose lengths range between 67 and 129 cm, respectively – does not allow identifying whether they correspond to the same individual, or determining traits such as age and sex.
“For now, the bones only tell us that they belong to the Proboscidea family (a large mammal with a trunk), and it will be until megafauna specialists do the analysis when it will be defined whether they belong to a specimen of the Columbian mammoth species. , already recorded in the Toluca Valley.
“The antiquity tentatively assigned to the remains discovered is 10,000 years before the present, taking as a reference the temporality of mammoths previously discovered in San Mateo Atenco and Metepec, towns in the same valley located approximately 45 minutes from San Lorenzo Toxico”, indicated the archaeologist.
One factor that would allow carbon 14 dating, added Navarro Martínez, is the presence of carbonized organic matter near the location of the bones.
Although, he said, it would be necessary to define whether such organic material –perhaps belonging to an ancient tree– is associated with the same geological stratum as that of the bone remains, its dating would provide more precise information on the age of the whole.
The femur and jaw report a good state of preservation as they are not fragmented or disintegrated; however, the head of the femur has an unintentional impact, caused by a pick when excavating the space for the cistern.
Once the rescue project has begun, by the State of Mexico INAH Center, the first step will be the stabilization of the pair of bones, and once the temperature of the context has been adapted, it will be possible to proceed with its recovery and transfer.
Although the researchers have already made a photogrammetric model of the context, “the archaeological methodology will allow us to collect the greatest amount of information on the site, seeking to better understand the megafauna that populated the Toluca Valley,” concluded the archaeologist.
It should be noted that, in accordance with institutional procedures, the bone remains that are recovered will be protected and investigated at the headquarters of the INAH State of Mexico Center, and it will be based on approaches with the municipality, which will determine if there is an interest in the remains remain or are exhibited in Ixtlahuaca.
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