Nearly 13,000 years ago, long before the Pilgrims arrived, mammoth hunters in North America were crafting eyed bone needles from the skeletal remains of foxes, rabbits, and perhaps even an extinct predator. Archaeologists say the discovery is the first of its kind in identifying the species used for these tools, offering a deeper understanding of the life and culture of the region’s early inhabitants, about whom surprisingly little is known.

The newly discovered artifacts were unearthed at the LaPrele Mammoth site in Wyoming’s Converse County by archeologists from the University of Wyoming. Earlier this year the same team revealed the oldest known bead in the Americas, made of hare bone, at the same site. Now, “Our study is the first to identify the species and likely elements from which Paleoindians produced eyed bone needles,” the researchers write in their new paper.

The team collected 32 needle fragments and analyzed their composition of amino acids to see what animal bones they were carved from. This revealed various species, including red foxes, hares or rabbits, bobcats, mountain lions, lynx, and an extinct species of American cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani).

The presence of chipped stone artifacts and the bones of a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) indicate the LaPrele site was likely a base used for mammoth hunting, making it one of the only mammoth butchery sites in North America. The mammoth was killed, or perhaps scavenged, for food – and what a meal the 10,000-kilogram (22,000-pound) beast must have been. 

The researchers on the latest project speculate that the animals used to make bone needles were not primarily hunted for their meat, but for their fur and bones.

“Our results are a good reminder that foragers use animal products for a wide range of purposes other than subsistence, and that the mere presence of animal bones in an archaeological site need not be indicative of diet,” the researchers write in their paper. 

The bone needles provide some hints of how prehistoric Americans fashioned clothes. Since textiles break down quickly and are rarely preserved in the archaeological record, we know very little about the clothing of prehistoric peoples. The researchers say the bone relics are evidence of “pelts sewn into complex garments”.

The LaPrele site was used by humans during the Younger Dryas, a period around 12,900 to 11,700 years ago that was marked by a sudden cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. Clearly, chunky fur coats were a must-have to endure the harsh drop in temperatures.

“Such garments might have looked comparable to those of the Inuit, who sewed furbearer pelts into the fringes of parkas whose base material was typically comprised of ungulate hide and used them for hats and mittens. The cold conditions of the North American Younger Dryas in northerly latitudes likely inspired a greater reliance on such garments, and the sparse Early Paleoindian archaeological record suggests a relative abundance of bone needles and furbearers in Younger Dryas-aged sites relative to periods before and after,” the study authors added.

The new study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

A family in San Francisco had an unusual ally in getting their turkey cooked on Thanksgiving — the fire department.

The fire crew at Engine 28 got a call midday Thursday for an incident just a block away in the North Beach neighborhood.

“Everybody in San Francisco is your neighbor, but being a block up the street this really is one of our neighbors,” explained Osayande Aikhionbare, a firefighter on the engine that responded to that call.

“So we pulled up on scene, the family was outside and they said they had a fire in their oven,” Aikhionbare said.

The family of four included a mother, a father, and two children.

The fire was out at that point but still smoking. Fire crews wiped down the oven, but then, it reignited.

Crews were able to put out the fire again and save the turkey which the family had just started cooking. However, Aikhionbare said grease from the turkey had leaked down near the oven’s heating element, which fire crews wouldn’t be able to clean without taking the oven apart.

At that moment, Aikhionbare said he and his colleague came to the same conclusion.

“Let’s just take it back to the firehouse and cook it for them as we had another side of our oven that is available,” he said.

It just so happens that the Engine 28 firehouse is one of the stations with two ovens, and the crew had a spare oven available to help this family.

The family accepted the firefighter’s help with their Thanksgiving meal and the crew brought the turkey back to their firehouse oven to cook.

“Two and a half hours later, the turkey was brown and crisp and delicious looking,” recounted Aikhionbare. “We were very happy and honored to be able to take it back up to them and to make sure that they were able to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.”

“When we have a fire, no matter how big or small it is, it’s devastating, and anything we can do to alleviate that stress and put a smile on somebody’s face is what we do,” noted Captain Jonathan Baxter with the San Francisco Fire Department.

He noted that this fire was actually one of many oven fires SFFD helped put out during the holiday.

Firefighters say they don’t typically cook food for others in their firehouse ovens, but on this occasion, they were happy to do it to help out their neighbors.

“We’re firefighters, we’re known for saving people from car accidents, burning buildings et cetera, and that’s not always the call, sometimes the call and the way you can make the biggest impact in someone’s life is by offering to take their turkey back and cook it,” Aikhionbare said.

DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver nonprofit, around since the summer of 2020, continues its mission of serving the community, despite the loss of heat.

For the past three years “Cats Not Cops” has operated out of the Holy Trinity Church of God in Christ Church in downtown Denver. Thursday, the group handed out meals on Thanksgiving for the fifth straight year.

Recently the nonprofit’s president says the building has gone without heat. The heating troubles have also affected church services, shuttering the building as the cold hinders the nonprofit’s mission.

“Right now, it is impacting us,” said president and CEO Tara De La Fuente.

The church was built in 1947, and the nonprofit was established during the rise of COVID-19 and the 2020 civil unrest in America. The nonprofit is now relying on the warmth of the community it serves.

Despite the setback, the church and its mission, continue on.

“We never let anything stop us,” De La Fuente said.

Donations can be made through Venmo to @catsnotcopsdenver, or can be sent to 1415 Park Avenue West, Denver, CO, 80205.