Scientists believe tusk found in Oklahoma may be from ice age elephant

Wednesday, May 5th 2004, 5:41 am

By: News On 6

(Goodwell-AP) -- Scientists at Oklahoma Panhandle State University believe a five-foot tusk found in a Texas County quarry may have belonged to an elephant that lived more than a million years ago.

A Texas County employee found the tusk last week while removing gravel at the quarry and stopped his bulldozer immediately. After taking a closer look, he called the university.

Paleontologist Amy Sheldon says professors and students excavated the tusk over the weekend and plan to examine it. Sheldon is a biology professor at Oklahoma Panhandle State.

Sheldon says the tusk came from an animal in the Mammuthus genus that lived in the Pleistocene era, which lasted from 1.6-million years ago until 20,000 years ago.

She says no fossils from that era have ever been found in the Oklahoma Panhandle.