NEWS: San Diego is Full of Mammoths

GEEK: San Diego is Full of Mammoths

As a resident of San Diego for the past 10 years, I am proud to bring to the newswire the distinguished lineage of journalistic integrity and drinking problems that this classy city has to offer. Still, when it comes down to it, it's not exactly an action-packed kind of place, so it's a warm and tingly feeling I get when I come across something that would make Ron Burgundy proud. Thusly, continuing with this week's strange and surprising things we've dug out of the ground series, I give you this: a piece of mammoth found beneath the St. Vincent de Paul.

Sweet! Sitting here with the electric fan at full tilt, contemplating dumping water over my head in an attempt to turn my hair into a makeshift swamp cooler, it struck me as kind of wild to imagine that, hundreds of thousands of years ago, arctic elephants were roaming the icy tundra wasteland around the gaslamp quarter. Then I remembered that Columbian mammoths are not the wooly variety, but more just the insanely large with creepily long tusks variety, making the point a moot one. Still. Kind of odd. It's apparently been tricky for archaeologists to definitively prove the former existence of elephant grandfathers here as well, which makes this find especially important.

Hell yes. Take that, Oceanside! Mammoths did not care to waste their time all way the hell up north next to Fallbrook and nothing but rocks and avocado trees -- mammoths were kickin' it downtown, partying like champs 'til the end of the ice age.

At least, that's how I like to imagine it.

Okay, so far this week the earth has eschewed mammoth bones downtown and mind-bogglingly old gemstones down under, both unexpected and both challenging the status quo of what was understood in the natural world; so what's next? Saber-toothed tigers? Weird proto-camels? Another appearance from a best-ever coelacanth? I'm up for anything. Perhaps it's not as exciting and breaking a news story as Panda Watch, but it's science, and that's good enough for me.


Good evening. I'm _DictionaryGirl_, and here's what's happening in your world tonight.

That's nothing. The English Channel used to be home to hippoes.

I'm hoping for the coelacanth. That was fucking cool.

You forget, those are not real mammoth bones. They were put there by Jeebus to test us. They are saying they are 500,000 years old. That makes no sense!

I know, right? Talk about bad evolution.

But then again, I guess a lot of people would suffer the same fate if we hadn't invented dentures. Or blenders.

The mammoths probably walked to San Diego from the La Brea tar pits.

pretty cool, but megatherium is still my favourite.

Columbian Elephants. Mumakill. Same diff.

you rock _DictionaryGirl_

Self culling?

Dentures and blenders part of the ultimate undoing of man?

I know you're kidding but this makes me cry.

My understanding is that dental abcesses were the leading cause of death for prehistoric humans.

Do you recall if this is in hunter-gatherers or in primitive agricultural societies as well? Seriously.

As far as I know it's both, but I'm not a terribly reliable source, here, as I don't remember where I first heard it.

I do know that overall public health and lifespan initially declined in agricultural societies, though.

I thought the issue was still a hotly debated one.

My understanding is that before the advent of cooking, teeth wear easier to clean (because food fibers weren't broken down), and generally healthier. But, people usually died before teeth could show wear-- making a reasonable comparison to modern dental issues difficult.

I'm partial to the giant spider webs in Texas. In my reality, those spiders are attempting to fight global warming by covering the dark foliage with something light and reflective, so that less heat will be absorbed. Spiders are cool like that. Here's a big pic of the webs.

Hey, whoa there D.G. You're hitting a little close to home dumping on North County. I guess you're right though, nothing but rocks and the yummy, savory fruit of Haas in Fallbrook. Go a little farther north from the Mecca of avocados though and you'll find my humble abode, Temecula (or as I like to call it, Traffuckula). Yes, I know it fares little better then Fallbrook when compared with your cosmopolitan burgh, but we do have grapes and gambling... Oh and mammoth too, lots and lots of mammoth.

While Diamond (Domenigoni) Valley Lake was being formed and excavation for of the dam was taking place, they unearthed tons of fossilized mammal bones from the Pleistocene era. So many in fact, that it was christened the "Valley Of The Mastadons". But paleontologists also found many other extinct species including Saber-tooth Tigers, the North American Lion, Dire Wolves, Giant Sloths, Bison, and the Flat-Headed Peccary (Ancient Pig), various species of horses and even the North American camel. Oh yeah, camels baby. Take that San Diego!

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Columbian Mammoth


American Mammoth


Jefferson's Ground Sloth


Dire Wolf


Sabertooth Cat (Smilodon! )


American Camel

I seem to remember hearing something similar in DIamond's Guns Germs and Steel. Based on the premise of that book, I'd say farmers died of dental abscess more often. But dentistry (at least, drilling teeth,) goes back 9000 years to the Indus.

In short, that was a whole lot of maybe, and I really have no fucking idea. But it's a start.

Man if I had known this yesterday I sure would of made sure we made a trip downtown on my family day trip to San Diego! wow "you stay classy San Diego!"