University of Nevada, Las Vegas professors Joshua Bonde and Stephen Rowland used this year's spring break to take undergraduate and graduate students, and an alumna to "The Sump" in Esmeralda County, Nevada in search of clues to a world that has long since vanished in the Silver State. In the shadow of Nevada's highest peak, Boundary Peak, "The Sump" preserves a snapshot of a western Nevada with giant redwoods, oaks, and swampy beaver ponds… a western Nevada 12-16 million years ago. This trip's prize: a partial skull from a four-tusked, elephant-like animal known as a Gomphothere. (Aaron Mayes / © 2014 UNLV Photo Services)