CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SAN DIEGO
A tusk, skull and other bones of a mammoth thought to be half a million years old were uncovered in a construction site in downtown San Diego, officials said Wednesday.
The remains were found at 11th and Island avenues at the site of a new campus for the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Excavation will be supervised by paleontologists from the San Diego Natural History Museum, where the find will be displayed.
The 8-foot-long tusk was found about 20 feet below street level when it was struck by the blade of a backhoe, officials said. Tom Demere, curator of the paleontology department at the museum, said the skull and bones appear in “very good condition.”
Demere said the remains are those of a Columbian mammoth, the largest North American mammal during the Ice Age.
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