Football players of Oregon State University apparently have no clue about 10,000 year old mammoth bones that were just located a few feet underneath them. Construction workers uncovered more than 1,000 pieces of bone from ancient animals including bison and mammoths on Monday, where the Reser Stadium is now transformed into an archaeological site.

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An excavator spotted what he first thought was a large log or tree stump during a reconstruction project, reveals Steve Clark, who is the VP for university relations and marketing at the university, however, upon closer inspection, this log came out to be a massive bone.

According to project manager Tim Sissel of Fortis Construction Inc., when they found out what it is, they immediately stopped working in the area. The construction company then contacted the university and called upon archaeologist Loren Davis to inspect the site.

Davis called a team to collect the pieces of bone including soil samples from the area where archaeology students were also able to sift through the soil and recover some bone remnants that could be left in the soil.

The biggest bone was a femur bone that belonged to a mammoth that measures five feet long, that Davis believes it was probably around 14 to 15 feet in height. Davis and team also believe that these ancient creatures were living in the Wilamette Valley for more than 10,000 years ago.

Apart from mammoths and bison, the Wilamette Valley is also home to large bears, beavers and even lions, tigers and camels, as revealed by bone evidence from the site. Clark says that a pond in the valley was the main water source for these animals and also, it was also a place where these animals go to retire and die when they are afflicted by sickness.

This site under the Oregon State University's Reser Stadium holds a treasure trove of vast archaeological discoveries, but there are also other sites some 20 miles away from the university where extinct animal species were also uncovered, however, this is the first time that ancient bones were found on campus.  

A vast array of animal bones was found but there are still no human artifacts or human bones. Sissel says that if these were human bones then this site would have also taken a whole new direction. If artifacts were found, the construction process would be even delayed more or even stopped. 

The bone collection at the construction site ended on Tuesday where the workers were also able to resume work on the same day. Currently, Davis and the team are keeping the bones moist to prevent further damage above ground. The next step would be applying chemicals to further preserve them and keep them from breaking down, then carbon dating them.