From the Department of Who Knew?:
Whilst digging the underground garage for a housing project being built at 16th and Market downtown, workers found an elephant’s tusk. It’s not just any old tusk, but a Columbian Mammoth tusk. Columbian Mammoths are “descendants of Mammuthus meridionalis (Mammuthus meridionalis ) the ancestral mammoth that entered North America via the Bering Land Bridge about one million years ago.” Wow. And one of them was wandering through San Diego when he, or she, expired.
You can see the tusk being removed via crane tomorrow (Aug. 31) at 4 p.m. The site is the future location for a 12-story multi-family residence being built by Fr. Joe’s Villages.
August 30, 2007 - 1:55 pm at 1:55 pm
Pleistocene megafauna! O joyous day! The Museum of Natural History has a bunch more, including my favorite critter of all time – the GIANT GROUND SLOTH. (yes, it deserves capitals). Every time I see a fossil I get sad that there are no more giant ground sloths to hug and love and name Bob. Albeit a 20′ high Bob.