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Mastodon Remains Discovered in Carlsbad

Imagine back more than 100,000 years for a moment, when dinosaurs roamed Southern California. That's just where local scientists were taken in Carlsbad when they gazed at pre-historic fossils of a Mas

Mastodon Remains Discovered in Carlsbad

(Photo, Right: Palentologists from the San Diego Natural History Museum carefully remove skeletal remains of a prehistoric mastodon, believed to have lived during the Ice Age. Jan Percival, Scribe Communications .)

Imagine back more than 100,000 years for a moment, when dinosaurs roamed Southern California. That's just where local scientists were taken in Carlsbad when they gazed at pre-historic fossils of a mastodon at a construction site. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

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A Paleontologist holds the upper jaw fossil of the prehistoric mastodon discovered in Carlsbad.  (Photo: Jan Percival, Scribe Communications.) .
  • Officials say it's the first mastodon found in Carlsbad. The mastodon is a distant cousin of the elephant. Remains were discovered Tuesday at a new home construction site. Tom Demere is the paleontologist with the San Diego Natural History Museum.

    Demere: We're the first people to ever see this specimen. And it hasn't seen the light of day for at least 100,000 years. It kind of confirms our ideas about the ancient environments here in the coastal plain of Southern California.

    He says two complete tusks, an upper jaw fragment with three teeth, and vertebrae from one mastodon were found. Demere says previous mastodon fossils found in National City and Oceanside were not as complete. He says analyzing the ice age remains could tell us more about climate change patterns. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.