Ice age comes to the Bollinger County Museum

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Fans of the "Ice Age" movies will recognize some of the displays now at the Bollinger County Museum of Natural History.

A mammoth skull that was on display last year has returned, along with the replica of a mummified baby wooly mammoth. The mammoth skull, named Dee, is based on the skeleton of a mastodon on display at the Tate Museum at Casper College in Casper, Wyo. The mammoth remains were discovered first in 2006, and the final excavation of the entire skeleton concluded in 2009.

When it was alive, Dee would have weighed 10 tons and would have stood more than 13 feet at the shoulder. From tusk to tail, the mammoth is about 26 feet long. It is likely that it died 11,600 years ago of old age and probable starvation at 65 to 70 years of age.

Displayed along with Dee is Dima, a male baby wooly mammoth whose mummified remains were found in 1977 in Siberia. Dima is estimated to have died about 40,000 years ago, most likely from being caught in a mud hole at the age of 7 or 8 months.

Two new prehistoric creatures are lurking about the second floor of the museum, on loan from Lost World Studios. They were made by the Black Hills Institute.

Joining the mastodons are a sabertooth cat skull, and a replica of the skull of a giant ground sloth.

Along with the characters movie-goers will recognize are a bison skull replica, a replica of a dire wolf skull and many fossils of ice age man in North America, North Sea Fossils, ice age plants from Missouri, and megafauna.

Two display cases hold ice age fossils owned by Guy Darrough, curator of the Bollinger County Museum of Natural History. Darrough also built and owns the giant Tyrannosaurus rex on display.

The ice age occurred during the Pleistocene Epoch in the Midwest. The Pleistocene Epoch lasted from about 1.65 million until 10,000 years ago.

The displays will be at the museum for the next six months.

Pertinent address:

207 Mayfield Drive, Marble Hill, MO