The ocean’s dark depths hold many secrets. For more than three decades, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has been exploring the deep waters off the coast of central California.
During an expedition aboard the R/V Western Flyer in 2019, MBARI remotely operated vehicle pilot Randy Prickett and scientist Steven Haddock made a peculiar observation.
While exploring a seamount located 300 kilometers (185 miles) offshore of California and 3,070 meters (10,000 feet) deep, the team spotted what looked like an elephant’s tusk. Only able to collect a small piece at the time, MBARI returned in July 2021 to retrieve the complete specimen.
Now, Haddock and researchers from the Paleogenomics Lab, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan are examining the tusk.
California researchers, with assist from U-M, recover mammoth tusk during deep-sea expedition
During an expedition aboard the R/V Western Flyer in 2019, MBARI remotely operated vehicle pilot Randy Prickett and scientist Steven Haddock made a peculiar observation.
While exploring a seamount located 300 kilometers (185 miles) offshore of California and 3,070 meters (10,000 feet) deep, the team spotted what looked like an elephant’s tusk. Only able to collect a small piece at the time, MBARI returned in July 2021 to retrieve the complete specimen.
Now, Haddock and researchers from the Paleogenomics Lab, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan are examining the tusk.
California researchers, with assist from U-M, recover mammoth tusk during deep-sea expedition