Mastodon bones found in Nevada valley

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

The site, reported to the Bureau of Land Management by two teen-agers who found the bones while they were motorcycling, is being policed by the federal agency to keep vandals away.

"The site has been - and is being - vandalized since we visited there," said Gary Bowyer, historical archaeologist with the BLM. "Some of the pieces have been removed."

Bowyer said a field paleontologist told the agency that the bones are those of a mastodon from the early Pliocene epoch which dates back 10 million years. The specimen the boys found is probably 3 million years old, Bowyer said.

The paleontologist is part of a group of specialists representing University of Nevada, Reno, University of Arizona and the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History who have been studying the Pine Nut Mountains for several years.

The site was reported to the BLM by Derek Prosser and Dustin Turner. The two were motorcycling on March 23 and noticed the bones. Trash and piles of crushed bones indicated that others had found the site as well.

"It's a double-edged sword," Bowyer said. "We want to open it to the public, but we can't leave it open if the public is going to vandalize it."

According to BLM regulations, vertebrate fossils - such as those of the mastodon - may only be collected with a permit because of their relative rarity and scientific importance. All vertebrate