RIDGEFIELD, Wash. (AP) — Scientists say horn shards unearthed as workers drilled holes for a highway overpass near Ridgefield, Wash., likely are part of the tusk of a mammoth that died thousands of years ago.
Roger Kiers is a Washington state Transportation Department archaeologist. He says when the shards were put back together, they formed a piece about 4 feet long. That’s likely just the tip of a tusk that may have been three or four times longer.
He sent one of the shards found last month to the Burke Museum in Seattle. There paleontology research associate Bax Barton hopes to make a definite identification. But Barton says the tusk probably belonged to a Columbian mammoth, which stood about 13 feet tall and grew enormous spiraling tusks. The Oregonian says they ranged from the Yukon to Central America before going extinct about 12,000 years ago.
Kiers says the overpass construction wasn’t delayed and the find won’t lead to further excavation. The tusk was buried about 30 feet deep.
