Rare mammoth specimen discovered by coal miners
In the early morning hours over the Memorial Day weekend last May, coal miners at the Freedom Mine near Beulah, N.D., made an extraordinary find: a well-preserved, seven-foot-long tusk of an ancient mammoth. Recognizing the importance of the discovery, the mine roped off the site until representatives of the North Dakota Geological Survey, the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and the Bureau of Land Management could visit the site to document the discovery.
Over the course of 12 days, a team led by paleontologists from the North Dakota Geological Survey excavated the old streambed where the fossils were buried thousands of years ago. They recovered more than 20 bones from the skeleton, including ribs, a shoulder blade, a tooth, and parts of the hips.