Unusual 'Giant Tooth' Found on Beach... Posted Photo, Received "Amazing Discovery" Comments

A Giant Elephant Species That Lived During the Ice Age
Museum Official Contacts After Seeing Photo Posted on SNS

A molar tooth of a mastodon, a giant elephant species that went extinct 10,000 years ago, was discovered on a beach in California, USA, drawing attention.

Mastodon Molar Tooth Measuring 30.4 cm Released by Santa Cruz Natural History Museum
[Image Source=Yonhap News]

According to reports from CBS and AP on the 1st (local time), the tooth was first discovered on the 26th of last month. At that time, a tourist named Jennifer Schura found a rare object while walking along Rio del Mar Beach. The object was about 30 cm long and resembled a rock or fossil. Not knowing what the object was, she took a photo and posted it on social networking services (SNS).

Wayne Thompson, a paleontology collection advisor at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum, saw the photo and immediately contacted Schura. He left a message on SNS saying, "This object is a molar tooth of the Pacific mastodon Mammut pacificus, and you have made an incredible discovery," and asked her to call him when she had time. After receiving contact from the poster, Thompson located the discovery site and rushed there, but the tooth had already disappeared.

In response, the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum sent text messages to local residents asking them to find the object and posted a detailed account on SNS. The museum stated, "The search for the missing mastodon tooth is ongoing," and added, "Only two other specimens of the Pacific mastodon have been found in our area, and both are part of our museum's collection." They also said, "This new mastodon fossil discovery is significant for better understanding Ice Age creatures, so we hope to find this tooth again."

The very next day, the museum received a welcome phone call. Jim Smith, a local resident who was jogging on the beach, had found the tooth again. After seeing the mastodon tooth on the news, Smith was confident that the object he had seen during his jog was the mastodon fossil the museum was desperately searching for.

Liz Bruton, who manages visitor experiences at the museum, said in a statement, "We were so happy to receive Smith's call," and added, "At first, he was unsure, but after seeing the photo on the news, he realized the object he found was the fossil in question and couldn't hide his excitement."

The museum said, "We are pleased to support the exhibition and management of this specimen," and added, "In addition to displaying the tooth, we plan to make it available for scientific research." The other two mastodon fossils currently exhibited at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum are a skull and another tooth; the skull was discovered in 1980 by a teenage boy.

The mastodon is a giant Ice Age elephant-like animal similar in appearance to elephants and mammoths. Unlike elephants and mammoths, which belong to the Elephantidae family, mastodons are classified as members of the more primitive order Proboscidea.