Ice Age Mastodon Tooth Discovered in San Francisco Bay Area Creek
A fossilized tooth from a Pacific mastodon, an extinct elephant-like animal that inhabited North America during the Ice Age, has been discovered in a creek in San Mateo County, south of San Francisco. Geomorphologist Brigid Lynch found the 23cm long tooth partly submerged in water during a habitat restoration project. Initially, the team was unsure of the find, but a reverse image search identified it as a Pacific mastodon molar fossil. The tooth is in remarkably good condition, with both its crown and root intact. Chrissy Garcia, curator at Stanford University's Geoscience Specimen Collection, noted that while the presence of mastodons and mammoths in the Bay Area during the Pleistocene Epoch was known, the manner of this discovery was surprising. The tooth has been donated to Stanford University, where researchers plan to determine its age and create a 3D copy for public education.
