(KRON) — A scientist was recently conducting field surveys in San Mateo County when she found what appeared to be an oddly shaped rock lying in a creek bed. The discovery has since been confirmed by paleontologists to be an intact mastodon tooth, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District announced Wednesday.
Brigid Lynch, a geomorphologist with Balance Hydrologics, spotted the tooth while surveying the area as part of a habitat enhancement project supporting California red-legged frogs, a threatened species.
The tooth is an intact molar from an adult Pacific mastodon. Paleontologist Wayne Thompson said the molar is in “immaculate condition.”
“It’s the most complete mastodon molar from our area, and the most spectacular mastodon molar that I’ve ever seen. I had chills and shivers up and down my spine,” said Thompson, who runs Pacific Paleontology…