Ancient tusk saved from bulldozer at quarry

GOODWELL, Okla. (AP) -- Scientists think a 5-foot tusk found in a quarry may have belonged to an elephant that lived more than a million years ago.
An employee found the tusk last week while removing gravel at a Texas County quarry and stopped his bulldozer immediately.
After taking a closer look, he called Oklahoma Panhandle State University. Professors and students excavated the tusk over the weekend.
The worker came within inches of destroying the tusk.
"If he would have hit it with another swipe from the bulldozer," said Amy Sheldon, a paleontologist and biology professor, "it would have been gone forever."
The tusk, which is 8 inches in diameter at its widest point, came from an animal in the Mammuthus genus that lived in the Pleistocene era, Sheldon said. The Pleistocene era, thought to be the most recent ice age, lasted from 1.6 million years ago until 20,000 years ago.
"At that time, they roamed the area like African elephants and Indian elephants do today," Sheldon said. "They were at least as large as our elephants today."