John L. Sorenson: The claim of the Book of Ether that the earliest Jaredites found elephants in this land has not in the past been supported by good evidence. Elephants (mastodons or mammoths) have long been known in North America (including Mexico), but until recently the remains have been dated no later than about 8000 B.C. Now the carbon-14 method of dating provides data on the early Cochise food-gathering culture of southern Arizona, showing that the state of their development contemporaneous with elephants extends down to at least 4000 B.C. and possibly later. In the Moist lands of Central America elephants and other large Pleistocene animals certainly lived later than in the drying Southwest. In fact recent discoveries show that the camel, sloth, extinct buffalo and perhaps others lived much later in Mexico and Central America than had been supposed. Since the larger part of this probably Book of Mormon area is virtually unknown to paleontologists we may feel confident that future work (by Later-day Saint scientists?) will definitely confirm the presence of the animals credited to that area in the time of the Jaredites and Nephites. Copyright © 1999-2003 Ancient America Foundation.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 11:53:46 +0000
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