Construction crew uncovers tusk of Ice Age mammoth in Seattle

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/12/construction-crew-uncovers-tusk-of-ice-age-mammoth-in-seattle/



Construction crew uncovers tusk of Ice Age mammoth in Seattle
By Reuters
Wednesday, February 12, 2014 18:54 EST
By Eric M. Johnson

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Construction workers digging in a Seattle neighborhood have found the curved tusk of a mammoth, an ancient elephant relative that inhabited North America at least 10,000 years ago during the Ice Age.

Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture said its paleontologists were confident that the fossil, uncovered on Tuesday, came from an Ice Age mammoth.

“The discovery of a mammoth tusk in South Lake Union is a rare opportunity to directly study Seattle’s ancient natural history,” said museum curator Christian Sidor.

Crews were excavating for plumbing trenches in the city’s bustling South Lake Union neighborhood when they found the tusk about 40 feet beneath ground level, said Jeff Estep, president of Transit Plumbing Inc, the subcontracting company involved in the dig.