Mexico City (dpa) – Archaeologists have found the remains of more than 60 mammoths near Mexico City, at a site where a new airport for the Mexican capital is under construction, local media reported on Thursday.

Nearly all the bones belonged to a species known as the Columbian mammoth, Pedro Francisco Sanchez Nava from the National Institute of Anthropology and History told the daily Excelsior. They were thought to be more than 35,000 years old.

About 30 experts are searching for remains at the construction site, about 50 kilometres north-east of Mexico City, where an air base is being converted into civilian use.

Other remains have also been discovered beneath the site of the future civilian airport, including those of bisons, camels, horses and tombs with human remains.

The mammoth bones were found in the area where the airport will have its control tower and runways.

The discoveries were not expected to slow the construction down.

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