Taphonomy of the Inglewood mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) (Maryland, USA): Green-bone fracturing of fossil bones

An adolescent Mammuthus columbi at the 24 ka Inglewood site in the eastern USA had not been killed or scavenged by carnivores, and its bones had not been trampled or weathered before burial. The bones were well preserved in an anaerobic and impermeable matrix which was disturbed in the 20th century by earthmoving equipment. The weight of the mechanized equipment broke skeletal elements into fragments with the morphology of “green-bone” fractures. The occurrence of a recently created green-bone type of breakage may be relevant for understanding other fossil proboscidean assemblages.