Geomorphologist Brigid Lynch, during a field study in San Mateo County, California, United States, found a fossilized molar tooth of a Pacific mastodon. The discovery happened while she was walking along the bed of a creek examining rocks, when she noticed a stone with a peculiar shape and decided to photograph it. Lynch is a researcher at Balance Hydrologics and was part of a project dedicated to improving the habitat of the California red-legged frog, an endangered species.
The fossil found is a molar tooth of a Pacific mastodon, an animal that inhabited North America during the Ice Age and is considered an ancestor of modern elephants. Estimates indicate that the specimen is at least 12,000 years old, belonging to an era when these large herbivores roamed the region.
Initially, Lynch did not know how to identify what she had found. According to her, upon seeing the stone, she immediately thought the shape was very strange, but continued with the research without knowing it was a fossil. The discovery was later announced by Balance Hydrologics, the company where the researcher works.
