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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ice Age fossils found at California housing site

Associated Press

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Fossils from the last Ice Age, including bones of ancient mammoths and a prehistoric bison, have been found at a Carlsbad construction site where hundreds of new homes are planned.

The fossils, 50,000 to 200,000 years old, were discovered earlier this summer during grading at Carlsbad’s Quarry Creek, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Work was halted while paleontologists carefully removed them.

The fossils included horses, turtles and Columbian mammoths. The latter were larger than the better known wooly mammoth and stood as tall as 13 feet at the shoulders and weighed as much as 10 tons.

The bison fossil, which includes a skull and partial skeleton, will eventually go on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Tom Demiri, curator of paleontology at the museum, said the animals lived during the Pleistocene Epoch or last Ice Age.

Meanwhile, grading on the housing project continued. Construction is expected to begin early next year.