The Scottsbluff and Lipscomb bison bonebeds initially were excavated in the 1930s. Although only brief, preliminary reports have been published on the two sites, they since have been cited widely in discussions of Paleoindian hunting practices on the western Plains. The Scottsbluff and Lipscomb sites both represent mass deaths associated with Cody Complex and Folsom artifacts respectively. Analysis of eruption and wear of the lower dentitions indicates that the Scottsbluff bison died during late spring to summer, and those at Lipscomb died only slightly later in the year (late summer to early fall). Thus, although often cited in the “yet-another-bison-bonebed” category, these two sites exhibit a pattern of seasonal mortality that is different from the generally reported tendency for Paleoindian kills to have taken place in the late fall or winter.

During the past fourteen collecting seasons, paleontological expeditions of the University of Nebraska State Museum have excavated a large number of sites which contained the bones of extinct mammals associated with the artifacts of Early Man. Many of these sites have been reported but some data have not been published. All of the studies of Early Man have been carried on from a paleontologic and stratigraphic point of view. It is hoped that a faunal and stratigraphic sequence connecting the Pleistocene and Recent will eventually be established, and that Early Man's relation to this sequence will be determined. It is the purpose of this brief paper to summarize the work relating to Early Man which has been done by the field parties of the University of Nebraska State Museum since 1937. The explorations have been confined chiefly to Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming. Since the studies of the Nebraska sites have, for the most part, been published, the discussion will be confined to the sites in the latter three states.