Valley of the Mastodons

San Bernardino County Museum paleontologists Kim Scott (L) and Carlton Bennett plaster a tusk from the skeleton of a 30,000-plus year-old mastodon, the second largest ever found on the West Coast of the North America, for safe removal from an excavation pit at the Eastside Reservoir Project near Hemet, California July 7, 1997. The dig site, which resulted from the largest paleontological mitigation effort in North America, has paid off with a plethora of mastodon remains, including the 1995 discovery of "Max", the largest mastodon found on the West Coast, and a wide variety of extinct pre-Ice Age animals including saber-tooth tigers, long-horn bison, dire wolves, camels, and horses. So many mastodons have been found here that some paleontologist have dubbed the site, "The Valley of the Mastodons". (Photo by David McNew)