‘Mammoths in Maine’ focus of Phi Beta Kappa talk
University of Maine Professor Emeritus Hal Borns and Gary Hoyle, artist and former curator at the Maine State Museum, will present “Mammoths in Maine,” at 2 p.m. Tuesday, March 28 in the Bodwell Lounge of the Hudson Museum.
Borns and Hoyle will speak about the history of the ancient animal in the state.
A tusk was unearthed during the excavation of a farm pond in North Scarborough in 1959 and was rediscovered during a survey of specimens for an ice age exhibit at the Maine State Museum. In 1990, bulk radiocarbon dating confirmed the tusk was ancient. During a 1992–1993 survey at the Scarborough site, the discovery of mammoth remains led to a multi-authored paper published in 2004. The Maine mammoth is the first mammoth found east of the Hudson River Valley.
The event is part of the Phi Beta Kappa Spring 2017 series of talks. It is free and open to the public.
Borns served as professor of glacial and ice age geology for 50 years at UMaine and was the founding director of the Climate Change Institute. In addition to working at the museum for almost three decades, Hoyle has been an artist in residence at the Climate Change Institute and Acadia National Park.