Mammoth tusk found in Seattle construction site
Construction workers in Seattle just found what appears to be a fossil from the Ice Age.
The discovery happened 40 feet down in a construction pit on Pontius Avenue near Mercer.
Paleontologists at the Burke Museum have examined the fossil, and they are confident it's a tusk from a mammoth.
As local station KCPQ reports, the tusk could be about 10,000 years old. It was found 1.5 stories down and digging was halted right away.
The construction is being done on that spot to build a housing development.
Crazy! Construction in Seattle turns up 10k yr old tusk! Burke Museum says it's from a woolly mammoth or mastodon. pic.twitter.com/hLS3mcCre3
- Kiera Howard (@KieraLanae) February 12, 2014
KING news in Seattle reports that the person who owns the land technically owns the tusk. It's unclear right now what the plan will be.
The artifact could be excavated further and dug out, but that would have to be a very careful process; the tusk is brittle after thousands of years in the dirt. Experts say it's miraculously well-preserved.
The biggest type of mammoth could have been up to 15 feet tall and weighed more than 8 tons. Mammoths' tusks could reach 16 feet long. They did coexist with early humans, and lived, of course, during the Ice Age. (Via Animal Planet)
