Twilight of the mammoths

Zachary Sepulveda (USA)

Perched upon a grassy hill ancient hunters prepare to make a kill…

Blaring trumpets shatter the air
Terrified voices echo despair
Hurtling towards their own demise
A chance at life, their fate denies.

The blood of giants spills upon the grass
Brought forth by razor-edged volcanic glass
Marching closer to defeat with each fresh laceration
Panicking behemoths flee from inevitable damnation.

Perfectly adapted to a dying world
Their fate was sealed when their blanket of ice unfurled
Their fragile world was brought to bear before the fury of the sun

And before they even knew it, their time on earth was done.

About the author

Zachary Sepulveda recently moved to the Pikes Peak region from San Diego, CA. He became interested in palaeontology by visiting the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles as often as he could. He is a junior member of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society and is part of the Pikes Peak Pebble Pups and Earth Science Scholars Program. Zach is 15 years old and is in 10th grade at Palmer Ridge High School in Monument, Colorado.

He has also represented the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society and the Colorado Scientific Society at the Western Interior Paleontological Society’s Founders Symposium: Ice Worlds and Their Fossils. The symposium was held at the Colorado School of Mines on 16 and 17 March 2013. Zac presented a poster as part of a section on “Bringing the Past to Life (Artist Scientist Panel)”.