The South Plains, a very long time ago, was home to a lot of species. Even today, paleontologists are making new discoveries all the time.
Joe Taylor, a paleontologist and owner of Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton, said mammoth remains are laying around more places than you might think.
“It’s pretty much all over the place here,” Taylor said.
He says 4,000 years ago, these animals roamed around West Texas.
A mammoth tooth was recently dropped off from someone in the Lubbock area.
“This is a female mammoth tooth,” he said. “An adult, these ridges here are plates, there’s about four, five, six, seven.”
The remains often show up when any construction work is going on.
“It’s fairly common, a lot of people, construction crew, guys putting in septic tanks, hit them all the time. They maybe don’t know, look at it and don’t know what to make of it,” Taylor said.
If you happen to be curious about finding something, Taylor explains what to look for.
“Around here you’ll look for white bones, sometimes the teeth are brown or blue, but usually they’re white,” Taylor said.
If you think you dug up something interesting, you can bring it to the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton.
