(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – A truly remarkable yet accidental find has delighted coal miners and scientists in North Dakota after they stumbled upon a massive, 7-foot-long tusk for a mammoth, a prehistoric elephant.
Specifically, the coal miners made a monumental discovery, unearthing the remains of an ancient mammoth, which became extinct in the region approximately 10,000 years ago.
This significant find occurred during an overnight shift at the Freedom Mine over the Memorial Day weekend.
Recognizing the significance of their discovery in the early hours at the mine, situated north of Beulah, the miners took proactive measures.
They cordoned off specific areas and promptly contacted the North Dakota Geological Survey (NDGS), the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and the Bureau of Land Management.
A dedicated team led by NDGS paleontologists undertook a meticulous 12-day excavation at the streambed where the fossil had been remarkably preserved for millennia.
The excavation yielded over 20 skeletal fragments, including ribs, a scapula, a tooth, and parts of the pelvic structure. Among these, the most extraordinary discovery was a seven-foot-long mammoth tusk, remarkably preserved since the Ice Age.
Clint Boyd, a senior paleontologist with the NDGS, recounted how miners, in the process of removing heavy rock, had inadvertently placed the tusk in a dump truck.
“So when they dump the dump truck out, the very last thing that came out of the bed of the dump truck that landed right on top of the pile was that full, complete seven-foot-long mammoth tusk,” Boyd said.
He said his team utilized plastic bags to maintain the moisture content of the bones.
“We have all of the materials wrapped up in plastic right now because this Ice Age stuff is what we refer to as subfossils. It’s not fully fossilized, there’s a lot of organics still in it. The sediment is really wet when you first uncover it, and if it dries out too quickly, it’ll just kind of crack and split and fall apart and kind of destroy itself,” he explained.
Boyd stated this mammoth fossil was unparalleled in North Dakota’s history.
“You get them out of gravel pits once in a while, but usually just like a bone or two, or like an isolated tooth. For whatever reason, we haven’t had a lot of really complete mammoth specimens from North Dakota before, so this was an exciting find,” he said.
