Mammoth find on US building site

Workers digging at a construction site in the US have uncovered the prehistoric remains of an 8ft long (2.4m) mammoth, it was revealed today.

A digger operator working at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law site in San Diego, California, unearthed a 20ft-long (6.1m) tusk yesterday.

School spokesman Chris Saunders said experts called in from the San Diego Natural History Museum uncovered the animal’s skull and other bones.

Museum palaeontologist Pat Sena said it was a “pretty important find” and that it was rare to find mammoth remains with such an intact skull, foot bones and tusk.

Full-sized mammoths, about 8ft to 14ft (2.4m to 4.3m) tall like elephants, became extinct around 10,000 years ago. But experts believe the specimen found this week dates back as far as 500,000 years ago.