CAMARILLO, Calif. — Justin Wilkins knelt in the dirt, popping a tiny piece of charcoal out of a carved-out bank.
Part of a team of paleontologists and archaeologists, Wilkins spent the past week on Santa Rosa Island uncovering what might be a link in the evolution of a long-extinct mammoth.
A bone jutting out of the steep hillside had brought them to the spot deep in a canyon, about 40 miles off the Ventura County coast in the Channel Islands National Park.
Over the last week, the team camped at the site, heading down into the canyon each morning to the bottom of an eroding, 44-foot bank.
Hour by hour, day by day, the mammoth began to take shape.
Its right tusk curved back nearly 4 feet into a full, cream-colored skull.
The fragile forehead area easily could have been crushed, but not this time.
“We’re seeing some damage here, but it’s really minimal. So it’s really, really exciting to have that,” said Monica Bugbee, St. Cloud State University student archaeologist and preparator at the Mammoth Site.
She lay on the dusty ground, using a knitting needle to gingerly prod rocks and dirt off that left tusk.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/09/14/rare-mammoth-fossil-found/90380490/
