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'Moorpark Mammoth' Uncovered On Housing Site
Crews Halt Construction After Find
April 7, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- Crews have halted construction at a housing site after uncovering the remains of what appears to be a mammoth.

The 350-acre site in Moorpark is west of Walnut Canyon Road south of Championship.

Crews were grading the site for 250 homes when they found the skeleton. They called a paleontologist, who is continuing an examination Thursday night.

Officials said the remains will be taken to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Crew members said removal might take about one week.

The skeleton is about 12 feet tall with 8-foot tusks.

The extinct Pleistocene elephants had ridged, large molars and long tusks that curved upward. They also had body hair.

The skeleton in Moorpark is 50- to 70-percent complete. Paleontologist Mark Roeder estimated the find was a a half-million years old.

"It's considered a very significant find, and it's a very complete fossil," said Mayor Pro Tem Clint Harper. "It's unusual because it was found all the way down near the bedrock. We asked if carbon dating could be used and they said, 'No way. It's too old'"

The first bones were discovered last week. A special crew was called after the discovery of tusks.

"They've been encased in plaster and burlap and removed from the site," Harper said. "There's a lot of concern that when the site becomes well known there'll be vandalism."

The discovery was made less than two miles north of City Hall in Moorpark, a Ventura County community about 30 miles west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

"The Moorpark mammoth, that's what we'll call it," Harper said.

Roeder told Harper and other city officials who visited the find site Thursday afternoon that it was unlikely remains of another mammoth would be found nearby.

The development by William Lyon Homes at the Meridian Hills site will not be slowed much by the discovery. The mammoth remains were being removed quickly to allow earth-moving equipment to continue working, Harper said.

Other Ice Age creatures have been found in recent years around Southern California, including a mastodon in Simi Valley, a mammoth in Oceanside and a pygmy mammoth on the Channel Islands.

Calls to the developer's office after business hours Thursday were not immediately returned and the onsite paleontologist also could not immediately be reached for comment.