Elk City, OK – Museum Curator Anna Wray recently discovered an extinct animal's tooth sitting in a pile of rocks at Elk City’s Farm and Ranch Museum.
Dr. Miriam Belmaker, archaeologist and Director of the Museum Science and Management Program at the University of Tulsa, visited Wray at Elk City’s museum complex on Friday, May 29, to discuss connecting Oklahoma's small museums.
Wray took Belmaker to the Farm and Ranch Museum to view a bear skull on display, and Belmaker saw a pile of rocks on the floor. "First, she noticed three bones belonging to a mammoth," Wray said.
When they moved some rose rocks and quartz out of the way, they discovered the mammoth tooth.
"Dr. Belmaker was shocked to see it sitting on the ground," Wray said. "She was able to easily identify it as a mammoth tooth based on its shape, size, weight, and enamel patterns."
Now extinct, mammoths were gigantic elephants with long, curved tusks, weighed up to 10 tons, and grew up to 13-feet tall.
Dr. Belmaker believes the tooth belonged to a young mammoth based on its size and the less worn, symmetrical pattern of the enamel indicative of a younger animal.
While looking through the rock pile, Wray found an exhibition label saying the tooth was found in Roger Mills County. She's trying to contact the person who donated it to determine exactly where it was discovered.
According to Wray, mammoth remains have been found at multiple archaeological sites in western Oklahoma.
A famous example is the Domebo Canyon archaeological site in Caddo County, and another is near Alva.
Wray said that the millennia-old mammoth tooth and bones will soon be on display at Elk City’s Old Town Museum.
"This is a project I'm super excited to work on over the next couple of weeks," Wray said.
She hopes that the tooth and bones will be displayed at the museum by the end of this month.
"Our large ammonite fossil will also be placed next to the tooth and bones, creating a small natural history section in the museum," Wray said.
The mammoth tooth and bones were immediately removed from the Farm and Ranch Museum and are sitting safely in boxes in the climate-controlled confines of Wray’s office until they can be displayed.
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