The Cerutti Mastodon Site Reinterpreted with Reference to Freeway Construction Plans and Methods^*

* Review and acceptance of this manuscript was managed by Reid Ferring, Department of Geography and the Environment, North Texas University.

ABSTRACT

The Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site has been claimed as evidence for human presence in North America 130,000 years ago. Damage to mastodon bones at an active construction site was attributed to ancient human activity. Damage by modern construction equipment was not cited as a possible cause. Through reference to a freeway right-of-way map and construction plans, contemporary road building practices, and work site photographs available on the Internet, this paper concludes that freeway construction was responsible for the damage.

KEYWORDS:

• Cerutti Mastodon
• California State Route 54
• alternative interpretation
• bone damage
• freeway construction

Acknowledgements

I thank Gary Haynes whose encouragement and criticism were essential to this effort, and I thank the anonymous reviewers and guest editor Reid Ferring for providing critiques that strengthened the resulting paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Patrick M. Ferrell is a licensed Land Surveyor (L 6775) in the State of California with more than 30 years of experience in freeway and road construction, 19 of those with the California Department of Transportation. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from California State University, Long Beach.

Notes

* Review and acceptance of this manuscript was managed by Reid Ferring, Department of Geography and the Environment, North Texas University.