On Tuesday, Jim Smith of Santa Cruz discovered a mastodon tooth while running on a California beach. Mastodons (large, prehistoric elephants) roamed North and Central America in the Ice Age. Scientists believe they went extinct over 2,000 years ago.
Smith wasn’t the first person to spot this particular mastodon tooth. A tourist found the sizable chomper on Rio Del Mar Beach last week. After photos circulated on social media, Wayne Thompson, a paleontology collections advisor for the Santa Cruz County Museum of Natural History, reached out to the woman. “I practically hit the floor. It was a mastodon tooth, right in the same area where we know mastodons lived in Santa Cruz County,” Thompson told KRON 4.
The next day, the tooth was gone. Santa Cruz County Museum of Natural History workers and volunteers combed the beaches for the gigantic tooth over the holiday weekend but came up with nothing. Then, Smith went for a run.
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Smith had heard about the search for the mastodon tooth on the news. So when he found it on the beach, he quickly turned it into the museum. “He was so excited to hear it was a mastodon tooth and was eager to share it with the Museum,” said Liz Broughton, visitor experience manager at the Museum.
The museum will take some time to study the fossil before the public gets to see it. The tooth will be added to a host of mastodon fossils discovered in the area. In the meantime, Smith will probably be looking out for a mastodon rib or pelvic bone. After a few thousand more miles, Smith might be responsible for discovering a whole prehistoric elephant.
Contributing Writer
Kells McPhillips is a health and wellness journalist living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, The New York Times, Well+Good, Fortune, Shape, and others.
