Giant ancient mastodon tooth found on California beach
A woman taking a Memorial Day weekend stroll on a California beach found something unusual sticking out of the sand: a tooth from an ancient mastodon. But then the fossil vanished, and it took a media blitz and a kind-hearted jogger to find it again.
Jennifer Schuh found the foot-long tooth sticking out of the sand at the mouth of Aptos Creek on Rio Del Mar State Beach, located off Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz County on California's central coast.
"I was on one side of the creek and this lady was talking to me on the other side and she said what's that at your feet," Schuh recounted.
"It looked kind of weird, like burnt almost."
Schuh wasn't sure what she had found. So she snapped some photos and posted them on Facebook, asking for help.
The answer came from Wayne Thompson, paleontology collections adviser for the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.
Thompson determined that the object was a worn molar from an adult Pacific mastodon, an extinct elephant-like species.
The tooth at the beach. (Source: Associated Press)
"This is an extremely important find," Thompson wrote, and he urged Schuh to call him.
But when they went back to the beach, the tooth was gone.
A weekend search failed to find it. Thompson then sent out a social media request for help in finding the artefact. The plea made international headlines. Days later, Jim Smith of nearby Aptos called the museum.
"I was so excited to get that call," said Liz Broughton, the museum's visitor experience manager. "Jim told us that he had stumbled upon it during one of his regular jogs along the beach, but wasn't sure of what he had found until he saw a picture of the tooth on the news."
Smith donated the tooth to the museum, where it will be on display.
Schuh said she is thrilled that her find could help unlock ancient secrets about the peaceful beach area. She hopped on Amazon and ordered herself a replica mastodon tooth necklace.
"You don't often get to touch something from history," she said.
