Woman walking on California beach finds ancient mastodon tooth
APTOS, Calif. (AP) — A woman taking a Memorial Day
weekend stroll on a California beach found something unusual
sticking out of the sand: a tooth from an ancient mastodon.
Jennifer Schuh found the foot-long tooth on Friday on
Rio Del Mar State Beach on California’s central coast. But
Schuh wasn’t sure what she had found so she posted photos
on Facebook, hoping someone could identify the strange object.
Wayne Thompson of the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural
History determined it was a mastodon tooth and went to the
beach but couldn’t find it. On Tuesday, Jim Smith of Aptos
heard about the missing tooth. He told the museum he had
picked it up while jogging and has donated it to the museum.