The biggest bighorn sheep skull you’ve ever seen is
on display this summer at the National Bighorn Sheep Interpretive
Center in Dubois, Wyo. It was found in the 1970s, among the remains
of camels, cheetahs, musk ox, short-faced bears and bison that fell
thousands of years ago into an 80-foot-deep limestone cave in
Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. “This cave’s opening is level with the
ground, like a sinkhole,” says center executive director June
Sampson. “Once the animals fell in, they couldn’t get out.” The
bighorn skull, on loan from the University of Kansas, is between
15,000 and 22,000 years old and is a full two inches wider between
the eyes than contemporary sheep. A children’s mural of the animals
found in the cave will also be on display.
Call
307/455-3429 or 888/209-2795, or e-mail info@bighorn.org for more
information about the exhibit.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline One big bighorn.
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