The naming project is, unfortunately, not a free-for-all. You're given five options to choose from, explained thusly on the museum's web site:
-Jessie is for bulldozer operator Jesse Steele, who uncovered the first bones while working in Ziegler Reservoir on October 14.-Ella is for the three-year-old daughter of construction superintendant, Kent Olson, who took the bones home to try to identify them and realized they'd discovered something big.
-Ziggy is for the Ziegler family, who owned the land where the reservoir was built and the Ice Age site was discovered.
-Samammoth is for Museum educator Samantha Sands, who presented mammoth programs to 8,500 schoolchildren in five days in the Roaring Fork Valley.
-Snowy is for Snowmass Village, home of the Ice Age site.
We're partial to Samammoth, but that's because we're immature and that one's the funniest. All the options are worthy namesakes. You can vote here for the foreseeable future.
But because the official ballot is so limited, we wanted to offer you, our readers, the chance to share your creative ancient mammal naming skillz with the world. If you had a hand in the discovery of a once-fuzzy fossil, what would you submit as a name in your honor? Would you go the pun route like Samantha or the daughter route like Kent?
Personally, we'd take a different route. If this were the Westword mammoth, we think we'd go with either "Tipsy" or "Print Journalism". Let us know what you'd do in the comments.
