Circa. 2010

Well, maybe. Maybe not. But I do own one of the largest intact Woolly Mammoth tusks found in recent years, and it has starred in a National Geographic episode as a potential relict of the bad times. There are indeed some unusual features to my tusk; odd marks, iron blotches, magnetic areas and such. It has also been the subject of study by Jon Hagstrum when he is not working at USGS. In fact, Jon fashioned a fine circular sample saw we used to take plugs from the beast, with Jon directing the action by cell from Menlo Park.

Here is an article in Nature concerning the Tusk’s cosmic connection: Mammoth tusks show up meteorite shower, Nature, December 12, 2007

In future posts I plan to discuss the Tusk in more detail, and I hope Jon will honor us with a guest blog on the subject. We will also need to investigate the menagerie of other megafaunal pieces and parts identified by the YD team as possible evidence something happened at some point.

Keep in mind, however, the eight tusks identified here, including mine pictured in Fig #2, are not purported by the YD team to be from the 12.9K event, as the team had first suspected (and is often misreported). These bones all date to another time, 32K to 36K years ago, as revealed in the National Geographic episode.  Therefore — though the tusks and skulls are curious — and may be evidence of catastrophe in an earlier time — they were a bit of a red herring with regard to the 12.9K event. More later.

But, for now, here are a few pics of my 110 inch long, 61 kilogram ancient ivory baby: