An 8-month old Labrador named Scout made history recently when he dug up a fossilized woolly mammoth tooth—right in his own backyard! Scout and his family hail from small Langley, WA, in the Puget Sound region.
Meet the first known canine paleontologist
At first, Scout’s family thought the busy puppy was playing with a big rock, but on closer inspection, grandad Kirk Lacewell thought it looked a lot like bone. He also noticed a funky aroma.
Kirk cleaned it up, dried it off, took some pictures, and contacted the Burke Museum of Natural History at the University of Washington to find out just what Scout had dug up.
Scout’s treasure
After examining pictures of the find, paleontologists determined that Scout’s find was a fossilized woolly mammoth tooth, about 13,000 years old. Now that’s a treasure.
Columbian Mammoth Skeleton
The tooth is from a Columbian mammoth, a species common to the ice age Pacific Northwest.
Kirk plans to keep Scout’s find on the mantelpiece (out of puppy reach). He told reporters, “If we find the rest of the woolly mammoth in the backyard, we’ll call you back.”
Here’s hoping!
Scout’s baby photo
Hat Tip: KOMO News