Archeologists are excited about what's being described as an "unusual find" on one of the Channel Islands.
This week a team of scientists unearthed a complete, well-preserved. fossilized mammoth skull on Santa Rosa Island.
The find is considered extremely rare and of high scientific importance in part because of its age.
Channel Islands National Parks Spokesperson Yvonne Menard told KCXB that the specimen has been dated to about 13,000 years ago using charcoal found adjacent to the fossil.
"The first evidence of man in North America was also discovered on Santa Rosa Island and it dates to that same period," said Menard. "So this particular discovery is really significant in that the time period for Arlington man and this specimen coincide."
Menard said Columbian mammoths may have migrated to the islands during the past two ice ages when sea levels were much lower and over the course of thousands of years evolved into a much smaller version known as a pygmy mammoth.
The size of this mammoth skull is large for a pygmy and small for a Columbian. Further study of the fossilized teeth should help determine the animal's age at the time of death and help clarify its species type.