Columbian Mammoth remains dug up near San Diego County

Construction workers found the remains of a 500,000 year old Columbian mammoth at a construction site in East Village, San Diego County.

This Columbian (Mammuthus columbi), has been estimated to have lived 500,000 years back.

Photo: Mammoth skull, snout on left

This was the first ever skull to be found in San Diego County at the construction site of a new law school named Thomas Jefferson School of  Law. It is indeed an irony that President Jefferson had a deep interest in fossils to the extent that he even had fossilized bones of a mastodon found in Ohio sent to the White House so that he himself could examine it.

As soon as the backhoe operator found out the fossil 20 feet below ground level, paleontologists from the San Diego History museum were called. Terming it as a significant find Patrick Sena, a paleontologist at the museum who  identified the bones yesterday morning, said,”The mammoth itself is a pretty rare find, and this is a really intact skull, foot bones and tusk.”

Photo: Excavating the tip of the tusk of the Columbian mammoth, credit - Sarah Siren, San Diego Natural History Museum

The mammoth’s right tusk, skull, foot and leg bones were identified initially, but on 6 February, the left tusk  was also found. Initial estimates indicate the mammoth was as tall as 15-17 feet. Complete removal of the remains of the Columbian mammoth is expected to take around 3 weeks.

Photo: Columbian mammoth skull remains, photo credit - Sarah Siren, San Diego Natural History Museum

Another paleontologist, Pat Sena termed it a very rare find , “Most of the time they (the skulls) get pulverized because they’re really nomadic, hollow and stuff and the tusks break apart if they get into any kind of environment like a river.  ”

A paleontologist was roaming around at the site during the construction expecting to find fossils of a marine animal. However this mammoth came to him as a surprise too.”This animal would have been larger than a modern African elephant and the largest land animal of its time,” said Tom Demere, curator of paleontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum. It is likely to have been 20 % larger than a modern-day African elephant.

Although this will delay the construction for three weeks, Rudy Hasl, the Dean and President of the law school was in the best of spirits,”It’s a wonderful occasion to celebrate,” he said.

Paleontologists from the San Diego Natural History Museum has taken over right now and to prevent the decay of the remains, the remains will be put in plaster casts. The remains will then be taken to the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.