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Boy finds tooth from giant woolly mammoth
Robinson Duffy
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
FAIRBANKS -- Ten-year-old J.P. Post was walking home from Woodriver Elementary School when he came face to face -- or rather, face to tooth -- with a giant woolly mammoth that roamed his neighborhood more than 10,000 years ago.
The boy was traveling home along a well-worn path when he saw what looked like a jagged rock sticking out of the ground.
Using his hands, he dug his find out of the dirt. He hefted the object -- about the size of a toaster -- examined the odd markings and deep striations and knew he was holding something special.
"I knew that it was not a rock because rocks don't look like that," he said. "I ran home yelling, 'Dad, I found a dinosaur tooth.' "
His father Bill was skeptical at first. He thought it was most likely a piece of petrified wood or just an odd mineral formation.
A few Google searches later, however, J.P.'s status as a fossil hunter was confirmed. He had found a fossilized molar from a woolly mammoth.
Woolly mammoths were a common feature of the Fairbanks landscape during the Pleistocene epoch more than 10,000 years ago, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist Ben Potter.
J.P. and his father took the tooth to the University of Alaska Museum of the North, where Link Olson, the curator of mammals, urged them to donate it to the museum, an option J.P. said he is strongly considering.
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Robinson Duffy
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
FAIRBANKS -- Ten-year-old J.P. Post was walking home from Woodriver Elementary School when he came face to face -- or rather, face to tooth -- with a giant woolly mammoth that roamed his neighborhood more than 10,000 years ago.
The boy was traveling home along a well-worn path when he saw what looked like a jagged rock sticking out of the ground.
Using his hands, he dug his find out of the dirt. He hefted the object -- about the size of a toaster -- examined the odd markings and deep striations and knew he was holding something special.
"I knew that it was not a rock because rocks don't look like that," he said. "I ran home yelling, 'Dad, I found a dinosaur tooth.' "
His father Bill was skeptical at first. He thought it was most likely a piece of petrified wood or just an odd mineral formation.
A few Google searches later, however, J.P.'s status as a fossil hunter was confirmed. He had found a fossilized molar from a woolly mammoth.
Woolly mammoths were a common feature of the Fairbanks landscape during the Pleistocene epoch more than 10,000 years ago, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks archaeologist Ben Potter.
J.P. and his father took the tooth to the University of Alaska Museum of the North, where Link Olson, the curator of mammals, urged them to donate it to the museum, an option J.P. said he is strongly considering.
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