VIDEO: After 7-foot mammoth tusk is dug up by coal miners, paleontologists to find other bones
Coal miners working near Beulah, North Dakota, discovered a mammoth tusk after it had — unknown to the miners — gotten scooped up at the mine, loaded in a truck, and then dumped out.
It's not uncommon for fossils to be found in North Dakota, but an expert told KFYR that it’s not every day that a mammoth tusk is found.
“I was quite surprised,” paleontologist Jeff Person said of the fossil being found over Memorial Day weekend by the miners at the Freedom Mine near Beulah, which is around 77 miles outside of Bismarck.
Although it may sound like the fossil went through a bit of a bumpy journey before being discovered, paleontologists say the tusk being found intact is a credit to the miners digging meticulously in a state where finding fossils isn't unheard of.
"It's just kind of one of those series of miraculous events," Person, North Dakota's collections manager of the state fossil collection, said of the tusk being found.
Mammoth tusk fossils can be fragile, but the North Dakota Geological Survey says the specimen found by the miners is a complete tusk.
"There is a lot of state to cover and if you don't have a lot of eyes looking you just don't find very many of them,” Person said.
In the video player above: See the tusk and learn more about the project to recover it
In a release detailing the discovery of the "well-preserved" tusk, the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources said "It should be noted that without the mining of coal in this area, this important discovery would never have been made."
The discoveries didn't end with finding the tusk
"Recognizing the importance of the discovery, the mine roped off the site until representatives of the North Dakota Geological Survey, the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and the Bureau of Land Management could visit the site to document the discovery," the Department of Mineral Resources said in its release, which was issued on Monday.
Digging up the 7-foot-long tusk helped paleontologists pinpoint more than 20 other fossils.
"Over the course of twelve days, a team led by paleontologists from the North Dakota Geological Survey excavated the old streambed where the fossils were buried thousands of years ago," the Department of Mineral Resources' release states.
More than 20 bones from the skeleton, including ribs, a shoulder blade, a tooth, and parts of the hips, were found.
“We got a big chunk of it. This wound up being one of the most complete mammoth skeletons that we have found in North Dakota ever," Person told KFYR. "Usually, we just find an isolated tooth or an isolated bone."
The Department of Mineral Resources said the bones were "stabilized in protective plaster jackets" and taken to the lab at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in Bismarck.
"They will undergo the slow and meticulous process of cleaning off the attached sediment and stabilizing the delicate bones," the release states, adding that the goal is to try and work the fossils into educational outreach programming.
"The goal is to ensure as many people as possible can see this specimen and learn what it tells us about life in North Dakota during the Ice Age," the release states.
Mammoths, according to the Department of Mineral Resources, roamed North Dakota during the Pleistocene Epoch, which is more commonly called the Ice Age. The department said the creatures went extinct 10,000 years ago.
"Several species of mammoth lived in North America, including the Woolly Mammoth and the Columbian Mammoth. They lived alongside other iconic animals like saber-toothed tigers and giant sloths," the release states.
The department said that once the bones collected at the mine are cleaned, paleontologists will identify the species of mammoth.
