A sinkhole in South Dakota is packed with mammoth fossils that experts have been digging up for half a century. Take a look.

<p class="ingestion featured-caption">The museum has left many of the mammoths where they found.The Mammoth Site</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Dozens of mammoths were trapped in a South Dakota sinkhole over <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/extinct-giant-mammals-pleistocene-megafauna-ice-age-north-america">100,000 years ago</a>.</li><li>A bulldozer uncovered the first fossil 50 years ago, and experts have been finding bones ever since.</li></ul><p>Amid the evergreen forests and picturesque hilltops in the Black Hills of South Dakota is a massive sinkhole time machine.</p><p>Tens of thousands of years ago, dozens of mammoths met their doom in this sinkhole death trap deep enough to fit a four-story building.</p><p>Today, the sinkhole is a treasure trove for paleontologists who get a rare glimpse into our nation's ancient past.</p><p>You can watch these experts uncover its fossilized secrets — <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amateur-fossil-hunter-finds-rare-mammoth-tusk-seven-feet-long-2024-8">from toe to tusk</a> — in real-time at The Mammoth Site museum, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.</p><p>Over the last half a century, excavators have uncovered fossils from 61 mammoths and many other ancient creatures, and they aren't even halfway through digging to the sinkhole's bottom.</p><p>There may still be dozens of undiscovered mammoths in its<strong> </strong>unexcavated parts.</p><p>"I never fail to be inspired when I walk into the museum," Chris Jass, the museum's director of research, told Business Insider. "You're standing right where those animals lived, <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-found-then-lost-mastodon-tooth-california-beach-2023-6">where they died</a>."</p><p>Take a peek into the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colossal-biosciences-stem-cell-breakthrough-woolly-mammoth-revival-closer-deextinction-2024-3">Pleistocene past</a> when mammoths roamed over 100,000 years ago.</p>