Strange rock catches scientist's eye during creek search, leading to rare discovery

A scientist surveying a California creek recently stumbled across something unexpected: a tooth from the mouth of an Ice Age giant.The discovery of the tooth, which belonged to an ancient Pacific mastodon, was announced by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen) in San Mateo County, California.Mastodons were massive, elephant-like herbivores that went extinct roughly 11,700 years ago, near the end of the last Ice Age.SHOCKING PREHISTORIC DISCOVERY ON NJ BEACH '100%' CAME FROM COLOSSAL ANCIENT PREDATORThe tooth was found in a Midpen preserve creek by Brigid Lynch, a Balance Hydrologics geomorphologist who was surveying the area as part of an effort to improve the habitat of the threatened California red-legged frog."As a geologist, I've gone out and seen stuff in the field, but definitely nothing as exciting as this," Lynch said in a release.Geomorphologist Brigid Lynch, pictured at right, discovered the mastodon tooth while surveying an area for habitat improvements for the threatened California red-legged frog.(Balance Hydrologics)Pictures of the molar show its strange shape, which Lynch initially thought was an oddly shaped rock.The tooth is in "immaculate condition," Wayne Thompson, CEO of Pacific Paleontology, told Fox News Digital in an interview. T REX FOOTPRINTS UNEARTHED IN FIRST-EVER DISCOVERY 66 MILLION YEARS AFTER CREATURE WALKED THE EARTHThompson, whose job it was to examine the fossil and assess the site where it was discovered, said the tooth likely dates back between 50,000 and 100,000 years, based on where it was found."It doesn't happen often.

… [It's] quite uncommon.""There is a lot of misinformation going around about the age of the tooth," he said."Most of the reports out [there] are saying it's 10,000 years old, but it's not 10,000 years."From the location where the specimen was found, we can pretty confidently say that it’s much, much older than 11,700 years — probably on the order between 50 and 100,000 years," he added...