Construction crews in LA found an almost intact skeleton of a 40,000-year-old mammoth
Construction crews at a Los Angeles work site have discovered a number of fossils including a nearly intact skeleton of a 10,000 - 40,000-year-old mammoth named Zed.
The construction site is near the famed La Brea tar pits and was discovered two years ago when crews were excavating for an underground garage in the city's Hancock Park. It is believed to be the largest find of its kind with researchers at the George C. Page Museum expecting it to double the size of its Ice Age collection.
Generally a find of this kind would have taken 20 years to excavate, salvage archaeologist Robin Turner told the Los Angeles Times. But because the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was keen to finish the garage, archeologist implemented a new way of excavation.
"We designed a crate so that we could take out the entire deposit without disturbing it so that, at a later date, you could do a proper excavation as you would if it were still in the ground," Turner told the paper.
Earlier this month construction had to be halted in San Diego, California when workers excavating for a college building discovered a 500,000-year-old mammoth.
