Cross-cuts STONE AGE STALLION

A horse head skeleton dug out of the Yukon’s rich archeological closet by a placer mining operation south of Dawson has officials at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa elated. They now have available for scientific study and research the most complete skull of the prehistoric horse eqqus lambi ever found, thanks to the conscientious efforts of Gerry Klein, manager of the mining operation, and his son Grant. Eqqus lambi was named after the famed geologist, Morris Lamb. The placer mine on Gold Run Creek is operated by Teck Corp. on behalf of the Granville Joint Venture, which includes Teck and Balner Enterprises, controlled by Lisle Gatenby. The male horse skull, recently carbon-dated and found to be 13,000 years old, was unearthed this spring from the pay gravel of an old river channel by equipment operator Grant Klein. It was in such good condition — missing just one or two teeth with almost all its nose bone intact — that the Kleins immediately contacted Dick Harington, one of the leading paleobiologists in the study of the Canadian Arctic.

The Kleins credit Harington, now chief of the paleobiology division at the Museum of Natural Sciences, with getting them and other miners interested in the various species that lived in the river valley thousands of years ago. So far, the miners have found the remains of such species as the woolly mammoth, mastodon elephant and the more common long-horned bison, elk, caribou and moose.

“We always keep an eye out for these things,” said Gerry Klein. “It’s our ninth year up here and it’s still exciting to find something.” Klein said most people are surprised to learn that parts of the Yukon and Alaska were not glaciated during the last ice age because it was too dry for ice to build up. “Because there was no gouging and scarring, everything is here from the past and kept preserved by the permafrost,” he said. “Some of the items we find are quite rare and we agree with Teck’s policy that the people of Canada should have them, rather than see them end up in some private collection.” Kathy Belrose, media relations officer for the museum, said the skull was an “outstanding and timely contribution.” The original specimen will be available for research, she said, while a cast of the skull will likely be used to complete a skeleton being cast for public display in 1989.