“Pygmy Mammoth Tusk” Is Actually Whale Bone

Earlier this month, the international science community was abuzz with the supposed discovery of a fully intact pre-historic pygmy mammoth tusk on Santa Cruz Island. However, after researchers spent two days removing the “tusk” from a rock formation on the Channel Island, the Nature Conservancy is reporting this week that the artifact, though indeed very old, is actually a jawbone from an extinct whale species. The bone was extracted from a rock formation believed to be between 9.5 million to 25 million years old – meaning it comes from an age long before the pygmy mammoths called the island home.