Bones Were Those of Mammoth

A number of bones unearthed by construction workers building a toll road in northeastern Orange County appear to be the remains of an elephant-size prehistoric mammoth, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies said Monday.

“We haven’t yet determined the find’s significance,” Lisa Telles said. She said the remains are the second such find during construction along the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor.

The latest discovery, Telles said, occurred last week when workers uncovered what initially appeared to be a tusk but turned out to be a large femur, or thigh bone. Subsequently, she said, workers under the supervision of a paleontologist discovered several ribs and vertebrae.

“They think it’s all from one animal,” she said.

Working through the weekend, field researchers began encasing the bones--estimated to be about 10,000 years old--in plaster casts, a task that was expected to be completed Monday. Telles said that the bones will be transported this week to a field hut in the construction area, where they will be stored until transferred to a laboratory for analysis.

The bones are the latest in a series of finds on the route of the future 24-mile toll road, expected to connect Anaheim Hills to Irvine by late 1999. Earlier discoveries included parts of a dinosaur and remains of a prehistoric camel, sea lion, whale and several giant scallops.

“We’re doing a lot of grading and earthwork so the opportunities to find specimens and fossils are great with this project,” Telles said. While most of the finds go unnoticed, she said, this one attracted attention because of its location--within sight of Santiago Canyon Road.

Work at the construction site, she said, was not delayed because of the find.