Thousands-Year-Old Mammoth Tusk Unearthed by Coal Miners in North Dakota

January 7, 2024

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Article by Jack Dura

The discovery was first made by a shovel operator working the night shift, noticing a hint of white while transferring a massive heap of dirt into a dump truck.

The truck driver later unloaded the dirt, at which point a dozer driver was preparing to level the soil but paused when he too noticed the white object.

It was then that the miners understood they had unearthed something extraordinary: a mammoth tusk around 7 feet long, or 2.1 meters, preserved in the earth for millennia.

'We were extremely fortunate to find what we discovered,' commented David Straley, an executive at North American Coal which owns the mine.

The tusk was discovered inside an ancient stream bed, roughly 40 feet or 12.1 meters deep, in the Freedom Mine located near Beulah, North Dakota. The mine stretches across 45,000 acres and can yield up to 16 million tons of lignite coal every year.

Upon spotting the tusk, excavation activities were suspended in that area and experts were consulted. They estimated the tusk’s age to be between 10,000 and 100,000 years old.

Jeff Person, a paleontologist with the North Dakota Geological Survey, arrived at the scene and expressed disbelief at the remarkable condition of the tusk, given the large machines used at the site.

'It's miraculous that it came out pretty much unscathed,' Person commented.

A subsequent excavation in the surrounding area led to the discovery of more bones. These included a shoulder blade, ribs, a tooth, and sections of the hips. This suggests this may be the most complete mammoth ever found in North Dakota, where isolated remains are far more common.

'Though the number of bones is relatively small compared to the total skeleton, they are clearly associated and greatly surpass the number of remains we've found from any one animal before, which adds to the significance of the find,' explained Person.

Once, mammoths journeyed throughout parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Remains have been uncovered throughout the United States and Canada, as explained by Paul Ullmann, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of North Dakota.

Such discoveries are fairly scarce in North Dakota and the surrounding region, due in large part to the Ice Age glaciers and ice sheet movements that destroyed many remains. In contrast, Texas and South Dakota have been more fruitful in terms of mammoth remains, and some have even found entire carcasses perfectly preserved in the permafrost of Canada and Siberia, Ullmann added.

These ancient creatures, larger than today's elephants and covered in thick wool, are believed to have become extinct around 10,000 years ago in present-day North Dakota, per the Geological Survey records. They are featured in cave paintings dating back 13,000 years.

'Mammoths have an almost superstar status in popular media, comparable to that of dinosaurs,' Ullmann said, referring to the 'Ice Age' movie series.

The fragile ivory tusk, which weighs over 50 lbs (22.6 kg), has been shrouded in plastic to carefully control its rate of dehydration. Fast drying could result in the tusk breaking or being destroyed. The remaining bones are also being preserved in plastic for several months until a method can be devised to safely remove the moisture. The species of the mammoth will be determined later, mentioned Person.

The mining company intends to donate the remains to the state for education purposes. 'Our goal is to give it to the kids,' stated Straley.

The North Dakota region has a rich fossil record, including dinosaurs. The state's most famous fossil is probably that of Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur with fossilized skin. This extensive fossil record can be attributed to the region's prior 'low-elevation, lush, ecologically productive environments,' as Ullmann puts it.

Given its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, North Dakota serves as a pathway for eroding sediments and rivers, which have been burying animal remains for more than 80 million years. ‘The combination of a rich environment teeming with life and favorable geological conditions for burying remains has resulted in this perfect scenario,' said Ullmann.

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