Intact Columbian Mammoth Skeleton Found in L.A.

February 19th, 2009

The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles are the site of the richest ice age deposits in the world. Animals became stuck in a tar pit along a river bed over 40,000 years ago which is why there are such a large amount of fossils.

Typically these fossils are spread out, or mixed with many other species when they are found, but recently a rare discovery occurred. A nearly complete, and intact Columbian Mammoth was found. They are calling him Zed. Yeah…”Zed is Dead” (Pulp Fiction’d) . He’s not going anywhere, but I’m sure all the guys that enjoy this sort of thing have their wireless alarms set to get a view.

The Columbian mammoth was a species of elephant that became extinct near the end of the last ice age.

“What makes this so special, so exciting for us is that Zed is a complete specimen,” laboratory supervisor Shelley Cox said while showing off his dirt-encrusted, dinner table-sized brown pelvic bone for reporters.

“And he’s really big compared to the mammoths we’ve recovered from La Brea before,” Cox said. “The tusks are considerably larger than anything we had expected.”

The tusks are said to be over 10-feet long!