Ice Age-era fossil given to museum after disappearing from a California beach
An adult mastodon tooth that was spotted at Rio Del Mar Beach in Santa Cruz County, California, is now in the hands of paleontologists.
The foot-long tooth was found by Jennifer Schuh while walking the beach on the Friday before Memorial Day.
Not knowing what it was, she snapped a few photos, posted them on social media and left it on the sand.
That caught the attention of paleontologist Wayne Thompson at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.
"He called me and told me what it was and I rushed back, but it was gone. I was crushed," Schuh said. "I knew it could be big for his career."
Wayne searched for the fossil over Memorial Day weekend, but luckily it was turned into the museum Tuesday afternoon.
"A longtime Aptos resident was jogging on the beach and thought it looked interesting. He didn't know what it was and just picked it up. But he was really nice and was happy to turn it in," Thompson said.
Video below: The oldest DNA ever discovered shows mastodons roamed Greenland two million years ago.
The tooth is the second confirmed mastodon fossil that's been found in Santa Cruz County; the first is a 120-pound, juvenile mastodon skull also found at Aptos Creek in 1980. It's now on display at the museum.
Thompson says the now-extinct mammals roamed Santa Cruz County during the last Ice Age 25,000 years ago.
The prehistoric fossil found in California will help paleontologists better understand the animal and modern-day climate change.
"It will help put it into context of global climate change," said Thompson. "We do know that during the last Ice Age mammoths used to be able to walk out to the Channel islands because sea levels were 300 feet lower than they are today, and so that's no different than the Monterey Bay."
The museum will study and restore the tooth before putting it on display for the public.
