Partial skull of Columbian mammoth found in Oklahoma

A partial skull and two tusks of a prehistoric Columbian mammoth have been found in northwest Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Archeological Survey archaeologist Lee Bement said Monday that a Woods County employee found the remains last week near Alva, about 150 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.

Bement says the elephant-like animal with long, curved tusks was common in the Plains region during the Pleistocene era before becoming extinct about 11,000 years ago. He says the remains of two or three mammoths are found each year in Oklahoma.

Bement says archaeologists are interested because the earliest humans in Oklahoma existed at the same time and could have hunted mammoths.

The remains were sent to Oklahoma State University for analysis by a doctoral student in geology. The remains will be returned to the landowner.