The Brief
- A scientist stumbled upon an intact tooth of a Pacific mastodon from the ice age.
- The fossil is estimated to be at least 10,000 years old.
- The discovery was made in a creek bed in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.
LOS ALTOS, Calif. – A recent routine field survey in the Bay Area led to a rare and stunning prehistoric discovery of an intact tooth from the ice age.
It happened in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen) preserve in San Mateo County as researchers were surveying creeks focused on the threatened California red-legged frog.
Inadvertent discovery
That’s when Brigid Lynch, an experienced scientist with Berkeley-based environmental consulting firm Balance Hydrologics stumbled upon an object in a creek bed that initially appeared to be “an oddly shaped rock,” Midpen shared in a news release announcing the discovery last week.
Paleontologists examined the rock-like object and later confirmed that it was an exceptional find — an intact molar that belonged to an adult Pacific mastodon.…