Ice age fossils found while digging a swimming pool

By Isolde Walters via SWNS

A couples' backyard looked more like a crime scene from CSI after construction workers digging out a new swimming pool uncovered bones - dating back to the ice age.

Matt Perkins, 35, and Joshua Anghel, 31, were stunned when workmen found the bones between two layers of rock and police were swarming over the property within hours.

But forensic officers said the remains were not human and archaeological experts said the 6,000 to 14,000-year-old bones were that of a horse.

"The pool people, police and crime scene investigators were outside our house and they said we had bones in the backyard," said Matt, a former massage therapist, from Las Vegas, Nevada.

"We freaked out. But then the police said the bones were too big to be human. It was a big shock. 

"When they started digging last week, my husband and I were joking that we hoped they would find a dinosaur to pay for the pool." 

Matt and Joshua, a software engineer, contacted the Nevada Science Center, which sent experts to evaluate the bones. 

Scientists found that the bones, discovered on April 26, were from a horse skeleton estimated to be at least 6,000 years old and possibly up to 14,000 years old.

Joshua Bonde, director of research at the Nevada Science Center, explained that the remains were found between two layers of rock thousands of years old. 

"The best we can tell on the age is that it is between 14,000 years old and 6,000 years old," he said. 

"We haven't had the time to do the testing that will tell us how old these bones are for sure. It is definitely from a horse of some sort. 

"During the ice age, there were two species of horse going around Southern Nevada. 

"One was not too dissimilar to a zebra, the other one was just what you would think of as a modern horse. 

"It's really rare to find bones like this on private property like this. 

"The whole animal might be in the hill - it will be fun to dig it out and see what's there." 

The backyard bone discovery is not far from Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument where rare fossils, including mammoths, have been unearthed before.