SARANAC, Mich. (AP) – A golf course groundskeeper recently stumbled onto something unexpected on the greens: A tooth from a 10,000-year-old mammoth.
Groundskeeper Patrick Walker found the 10-pound tooth Tuesday when he was on the greens about 30 miles east of Grand Rapids at Morrison Lake Country Club.
The recent high school graduate tells The Grand Rapids Press he knew the tooth exposed by recent rains was from an extinct elephant because he paid attention in his science classes.
Research assistant Scott Beld from the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology visited the course and confirmed that Walker’s find was a mammoth tooth.
He also visited the site the tooth was found and discovered bones and a portion of a tusk – fossils that will remain in place pending further study.
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Information from: The Grand Rapids Press,
http://www.mlive.com/grpress
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AP-CS-08-23-09 1739EDT