A recently-discovered wooly mammoth tooth is the first evidence of the creature's existence in New Hampshire.
A decade ago researcher Plymouth State University biology professor Fred Prince found a strange object near a stream in Campton. Not knowing what it was he tossed it away, the university reported.
"I threw it away, I just dropped it back into the gravel," Prince recalls. "It was ten years after the fact when I realized what I had done."
He later came into contact with a wooly mammoth molar acquired from the Netherlands and realized that he had made a big mistake.
"As soon as I put that partial molar in my hand I was back ten years ago beside that stream," Prince said. "I felt sick knowing what I tossed aside."
The mistake inspired Prince to do more research on wooly mammoths and their anatomy.
"I told my wife, 'I'm going to go look for a mammoth molar,' and I found this in a decades-old gravel pit; it was the third place I looked," Prince said. "It was embedded into the surface of the ground, and I could see those contours on top. I know it's hard to believe, but that's what happened. I went out specifically to find a mammoth tooth and I did. So, with this second chance, I officially had the first New Hampshire mammoth find to go along with my unofficial find of years ago."
Prince sent photos of the molar to Doctor Larry Agenbroad, Director of The Mammoth Site in South Dakota, who confirmed it was a wooly mammoth tooth. The specimen was also sent to Accelerator Mass Spectrometry lab at the University of Arizona for radiocarbon dating, but the collagen was not preserved well enough for an analysis.
Mammoth remains are extremely rare in New England. Findings include a tooth and tusk discovered in 1848; a partial skeleton found in 1959; and a tooth in 2013. The researcher believes many other have been found, but also tossed aside.
"I wouldn't doubt there are people who have picked up something like this and did the same thing I did ten years ago. I think people have assumed some were here in New England, but there isn't much evidence, in part due to the acidity of our soil and in part likely a result of low population density," Prince said.
