Construction workers have unearthed a rare type of fossil while working in a private property in Seattle's South Lake Union on Tuesday.
The fossil, believed to be a mammoth tusk, have been examined by experts from the Burke Museum of National History and Culture. According to Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture curator of vertebrate paleontology, Christian Sidor, the experts who examined the tusk are confident that this belonged to a mammoth that lived during the Ice Age period.
However, the fossil was found in a private property, and the owner of the property gets to decide what to do with the tusk. Should the owner decided to let the experts excavate the fossil, Sidor said that they would be happy to assist with the excavation.
"The discovery of a mammoth tusk in South Lake Union is a rare opportunity to directly study Seattle's ancient natural history," Sidor said in an interview with KIRO TV. "As a public repository, the Burke Museum would be pleased curate the tusk and provide access to scientists and others wishing to study it."
Experts believed that the mammoth may have lived in Washington almost 10,000 years ago and some similar fossils have been excavated in western Washington before.
Local resident of South Lake Union, John Warren told Q13Fox.com, "It's fantastic; it feels like it happened in my backyard."
Geologist David Williams also told the station that Mastodon, a species of mammoth which stood 12 feet tall, also lived in that area thousands of years ago. He noted that finding the teeth of the mammoth may lead to the discovery of its other parts and enable scientists to put together the mammoth's skeleton. This, on the other hand, will help scientists to identify the mammoth's specific species.
