Mastodon Mystery in Santa Cruz County: Ice Age Tooth Vanishes From Beach
Posted on 05/31/2023 1:02:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An adult mastodon tooth that was spotted at Rio Del Mar Beach near Aptos Creek is now in the hands of paleontologists in Santa Cruz.
The foot-long tooth was found by Jennifer Schuh while walking the beach on Friday.
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.
Recommended Video shows scary moment police evacuate Santa Cruz beach on Memorial Day 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 that was 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 will not only help paleontologists better understand the animal but also 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.
What a nice lady! Looking out for a stranger's career!
Not to be confused with the Masturbaterdon who went extinct for obvious reasons.
Proof: the tooth will set you free.
Must have been a British Mastodon.......................
It’s difficult to hunt when you’re blind.
But went blind first.
Around nineteen fifty or so a group of young geologists with a geology professor dug up a mastodon tusk just after a rockslide occurred near Dublin, California. I wonder what happened to it? Aptos is about seventy miles distant from Dublin.
Too bad. Someone could have enjoyed that and then sold it for a tidy profit. They will “study” it for decades... then file it away like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
That could have been worth a few thousand dollars to a collector. No different that finding a cool seashell.
“It will help put it into context of global climate change,” said Thompson.
What a dumb thing to say. How is one tiny tooth going to improve one’s understanding of the earth’s total climate? News flash: climate change is a fictional story written by grant writers.
I don't think that's a fossil. If it's fossilized, none of the other stories I've seen reporting this mentioned it.
C'mon, man! Didn't you watch The Flintstones growing up? ;-)
Ya beat meto it! Well done!
Mastodon Mystery in Santa Cruz County: Ice Age Tooth Vanishes From Beach
KRON4 | May 29, 2023 | Amy Larson
Posted on 5/30/2023, 1:49:07 PM by nickcarraway
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4157019/posts
This topic was posted , thanks nickcarraway.
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