North Dakota

Huge, complete mammoth tusk accidentally discovered by North Dakota coal miners

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2024

Huge, complete mammoth tusk accidentally discovered by North Dakota coal miners

Coal miners in North Dakota made an astonishing find when they unearthed a partial mammoth skeleton with a complete, 7 foot (2.1 meter) tusk.

The miners discovered the well-preserved mammoth tusk while working at the Freedom Mine, near the city of Beulah, over Memorial Day weekend last May. According to KFYR, the tusk was scooped up and loaded onto a truck before the miners noticed it.

The area was quickly closed off to allow paleontologists at the North Dakota Geological Survey, the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and the Bureau of Land Management to excavate the old streambed where the fossils were buried.

They gradually unearthed more than 20 bones from the mammoth skeleton, including ribs, a shoulder blade, a tooth and parts of the hips, at the site.

This discovery is remarkable, said Clint Boyd, senior paleontologist for the North Dakota Geological Survey, in a statement, because most mammoth fossils found in North Dakota are single bones and teeth.

“This specimen is one of the most complete mammoth skeletons discovered in North Dakota, making it an exciting and scientifically important discovery,” he said.

Jeff Person, a paleontologist with the North Dakota Geological Survey told the Associated Press it was “miraculous” the tusk had not been damaged during removal.

The bones were covered in protective plastic wraps before being transported to the Paleontology Lab at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum in Bismarck. They will be carefully cleaned so they can be examined in detail.

Further excavations revealed one of the most complete mammoth skeletons ever found in the state. (Image credit: North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources)

Then, the bones will be used to educate the general public about life during the last ice age (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), although it’s not yet known where they will be kept.

Several species of mammoth lived in North America during the Ice Age, including the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). Once the bones are fully cleaned, paleontologists will be able to identify from which mammoth species they belong.

Mammoths went extinct around 10,000 years ago. Warmer temperatures caused a loss of habitat for these megafauna, which — combined with human hunting — led to huge population declines.

Scientists have used mammoth fossils to discover more about these gigantic creatures. Genetic testing has found woolly mammoths to be more closely related to the modern African elephant (Loxodonta africana) than to the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Research has also shown that woolly mammoths’ distinctive traits, including their smaller ears, large fat deposits and fluffy coats, became more pronounced over 700,000 years as they adapted to freezing conditions.

In 2021, scientists sequenced the DNA recovered from mammoth remains to find that the Columbian mammoth was a hybrid between the woolly mammoth and a previously unknown genetic lineage of mammoth.

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North Dakota

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Published

14 minutes ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Broncos won’t repeat as NCHC hockey champs, lose to N. Dakota: ‘We broke down’

Kalamazoo — There’ll be a new champion in the NCHC.

Will Zellers scored the game-winning goal in the third period as No. 3 North Dakota downed No. 4 Western Michigan, 5-3, Friday night at Lawson Arena. The Broncos never led and trailed all of the third period, though a late push nearly tied the game with the net empty.

“Overall in the game, I thought it was a pretty tightly contested effort. I thought they just scored too easy,” Western Michigan coach Pat Ferschweiler said. “You know, for us, we had a couple breakdowns, and they’re so talented, so good, they took advantage when we broke down.”

The teams finish the regular season Saturday night. Western Michigan came into Friday’s game tied with Denver in standings points and five points behind North Dakota, needing that many to get a share of the Penrose Cup it won last season en route to an NCAA championship, too.

As far as regular season results go, the Broncos will play for second seed in the NCHC Tournament, needing to outpace Denver, which plays Arizona State this weekend.

Western Michigan (23-9-1, 15-7-1 NCHC) goaltender Hampton Slukynsky made 16 saves on 20 shots in the loss while North Dakota’s Jan Spunar stopped 22 of 25 shots. It was a battle of two of the NCHC’s top netminders, and each made key stops in a tight-checking, physical game.

Zellers put North Dakota (25-7-1, 17-5-1) up 4-2 4:42 into the third period off an assist from Detroit Red Wings draft choice Dylan James.

“He kind of made a play out of nothing there,” said North Dakota coach Dane Jackson, who is in his first season as head coach after being on the coaching staff since 2006. “And that was a really nice kind of moment where you go OK, we got a little got a little leeway here, and we can just kind of play a little bit more free.”

North Dakota took a 3-2 lead into the third period with goals from defenseman Sam Laurila alongside forwards Ollie Josephson and Josh Zakreski. Defenseman Zach Bookman and forward Liam Valente scored for Western Michigan.

One too many times in the second frame, Western Michigan’s blue line let a North Dakota forward in all alone to face Slukynsky, who stopped a couple of rushes in the opening minutes of the period.

With four minutes until the intermission, the Broncos finally got burned. On a feed from linemate Anthony Menghini, Lakreski cut to the glove side of a sprawling Slukynsky and beat him with the backhand. The goal gave North Dakota the 3-2 lead, after a seeing-eye shot from Bookman along the right wall had tied it up two apiece 8:10 into the period.

“I actually thought the second period was our best period,” Ferschweiler said. “… We started to take over. We got the goal, tied 2-2, and are kind of just humming along. Four minutes left, we just hand them a goal. Blown coverage. That was inexcusable, honestly, with some of our better players on the ice.”

The opening period played out as a back and forth track meet through the neutral zone as each side settled in. Laurila put North Dakota up 1-0 with his first career goal. After Slukynsky denied him on a trio of tries earlier in the shift, he fired a shot to beat the Western Michigan netminder 4:40 into the game.

It took just a minute and 34 seconds after Laurila’s opener for Western Michigan’s top line to get it right back. A blue-collar shift from captain Owen Michaels fed linemate Will Whitelaw along the left boards, and he sprung Valente for a breakaway goal that evened up the score.

“I thought we gave it to them too easy a couple times tonight,” Whitelaw said. “And I think when you’re playing a team like that, obviously they’re gonna put it in your net. But I think it’ll be a big lesson for our group going forward.”

For the better part of the first period, the Lawson Lunatics peppered North Dakota defenseman Jake Livanavage with jeers, but he got his own licks in with 7:48 left in the first period as he fed Josephson right at the net for the 2-1 goal. That score held through the first period.

With 2:02 remaining and Slukynsky pulled, forward Zaccharya Wisdom pulled Western Michigan within one. He nearly had the equalizer with 40 seconds on the clock on a backdoor try, but he mistimed the shot. Mac Swanson scored an empty-netter with 20.7 seconds on the clock to clinch the win, and with it the Penrose Cup, presented to North Dakota in the locker room and then paraded around the ice.

“It’s the hardest regular season championship to win, in my opinion,” North Dakota forward Ben Strinden said. “So it’s awesome. Obviously, it’s not our end goal, but we’re going to enjoy it for sure.”

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood

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