Researcher discovers mastodon molar along California's coastline

It was a normal field survey along the California coastline in San Mateo County that turned into a fascinating discovery. 

"She did a reverse Google image search and found out that it might be a molar of an Ice Age mastodon. And so, at that point, the Midpeninsula Open Space Preserve (Midpen) contacted me about confirming whether it was a tooth or not because it was gigantic," Wayne Thompson, a paleontologist with Pacific Paleontology, told CBS News Bay Area. 

Thompson said Brigid Lynch, a geomorphologist with Balance Hydrologics, was doing research for Midpen on how to support the threatened California red-legged frog. 

"What initially appeared to be an oddly shaped rock was later confirmed by paleontologists to be an intact, adult Pacific mastodon molar," the press release stated. 

 Researchers believe the tooth is 10,000 years old. 

"I confirmed it was a mastodon tooth. And everybody is pretty excited about it, because these don't show up all that often," Thompson said. 

Thompson has been a paleontologist for the past five decades. 

"Typically, what you find out is that mastodon teeth tend to get broken up pretty easily. This one's hardly broken at all. So, the skull that it came from is very nearby," he said. "The coloring is very characteristic of mastodon teeth that are preserved."

Midpen is not disclosing the exact location of where the fossil was found, but told CBS News Bay Area that it was within the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains in San Mateo County. 

"These Ice Age creatures are really coming more to the surface. Also on construction sites because they do afford environmental protections, and so new construction sites, they are discovered," Thompson said. 

Mastodons went extinct around 11,700 years ago, and researchers believe the species lived in areas of what has now become states like California, Oregon, the northern Rocky Mountain region of the western U.S. and some parts of Mexico.

"The mastodons are interesting to me just because the wooly mammoth and everything like that. It makes me think of elephants, but we don't have those over here," Donovan Summers, who was visiting San Mateo County, said. 

"I think that's pretty cool. I hope people are aware of that and don't disturb the artifacts. Let the professionals do the discovery to find more, to contribute to science," Rick Guan, another resident, said.  

Midpen donated the fossil to Stanford University's Doerr School of Sustainability, where researchers hope to determine its exact age and also print a 3D copy of the fossil for educational outreach. 

"We get a really good idea that climate has changed so drastically compared to what we are going through now. And we can certainly make scientific models that include the data for paleontology and fossils in our conversation for global climate change going forward. If the animals could talk, they would say, 'Please slow down,'" Thompson said. 

While Lynch was unavailable for an interview with CBS News Bay Area on Sunday, Midpen's press release provided a quote. 

"As a geologist, I've gone out and seen stuff in the field, but definitely nothing as exciting as this," Lynch said.