Wilsonville Donald-Aurora

 

 

 

                                                                      TEETH ARE WHERE YA FIND ‘EM!

By Dr. Lyle Hubbard, PhD.

 

In the Willamette Valley there are numerous finds of extinct megafauna in creeks, rivers and springs.  Some of the finds include huge mammoth teeth, a leg bone nearly as big as the kids that found it in a Woodburn area creek.

 

A CASE IN POINT:  Recently we had a magnificent mammoth molar brought to our attention.  It had “surfaced” in a spring in the Wilsonville area and has become a family treasure.

An element of very good luck somehow preserved the integrity of this mammothian tooth.  As a rule, sub-fossil bones salvaged from streams and springs have been soaking for thousands of years in saturated sediments.  If they are taken from that semi-fluid environment and allowed to dry they tend to dissolve into bits and pieces of the original bone, tusk or tooth.

The mammoth tooth had been found in the late 1970s, and not kept wet.  Why had it not become a pile of fragments? We don’t know.  Thankfully, it remains in great shape!

We generally recommend that these pre-Missoula Floods finds be kept wet/immersed after being collected.  We can advise you on how to preserve your finds.

Note the occlusal (chewing) surface of this mammoth tooth, and the many looping enamel ridges on that surface.

These ridges indicate that mammoths ate grasses and so are more apt to be found in valleys and plains where grasses were abundant.  Grasses have lots of silicon (a glassy mineral) in them.  Chewing on grasses wears teeth down rapidly.  That’s why horses have such tall teeth.  Deer, elk, and bison have teeth more suited for browsing.

 


 

MASTODONS, another extinct elephant found in the valley, had mound-like tooth cusps (“mastis” = breast shaped) adapted for browsing on twigs, leaves and other kinds of foliage with relatively low silicon content.  There is a partial mastodon skeleton parked in the Tualatin Public Library!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tooth (above) is from the Tualatin mastodon and is on display at the Tualatin Historical Center.  Note the distinctive cusps on the chewing surface which are an adaption  for browsing on twigs and leaves.

 

A partial skeleton of this same mastodon is on display at the Tualatin Public Library.

 

 

If you find, or have found, megafaunal remains of Oregon’s Ice Age give us a holler! 

We will be tickled to see what you have and perhaps identify it for you.  All we ask is an opportunity to photograph and measure your treasure(s).  We would also like to have information about where you found the material  (which is not shared with the general public, to protect your privacy and property rights).

 

Help us with our research!

Now we have a question for our readers!  Has anyone heard about rumors of “bones” that were seen being ‘dozed-up” at the Aurora airport when they were improving it in the early ‘40sas part of the WWII effort??  Someone has mentioned there were 300 or more bones being moved?  Reburied?

Have you heard tales or do you know of any other long forgotten fossils, artifacts or glacial erratics?  Hit the “Contact Us” button on our web site home page!