After thousands of years, scientists have finally discovered the reason why the Mayans vanished

 A Mastodon tooth, a very rare treasure, was found on a California beach

With an estimated age of less than 1 million years, the newly discovered mastodon tooth is considered to be a "new" fossil. A woman decided to take a leisurely Memorial Day weekend stroll along a California beach when she came across an unusual object jutting out of the sand: an old mastodon tooth.

The fossil's voyage, however, took an unexpected turn when it vanished, igniting a media frenzy and necessitating a kind-hearted jogger's help to find it. At the mouth of Aptos Creek on Rio Del Mar State Beach in Santa Cruz County, Jennifer Schuh discovered a foot-long (.30-meter) teeth. She published her discovery on Facebook and asked for assistance in identifying the rare find.

A worn molar from an adult Pacific mastodon, a species closely related to the ancient elephant, was discovered in Schuh's post by Wayne Thompson, a paleontology collections advisor at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History. Thompson pushed Schuh to get in touch with him after realizing the importance of the discovery. The tooth had, however, disappeared by the time they got back to the beach.

 

 Thompson turned to social media to ask for help in finding the artifact after a fruitless weekend hunt, garnering attention from all over the world. The museum was eventually contacted by a local man called Jim Smith who frequently ran along the beach in Aptos and realized he had come upon the missing tooth. The tooth Smith kindly donated to the museum will be on display there for visitors to see from Friday through Sunday.

The tooth's exact age is still difficult to determine. Mastodons are thought to have mainly frequented California between 5 million and 10,000 years ago, according to the museum. However, based on its state, museum spokeswoman Liz Broughton believes the specimen is probably younger than 1 million years, which is considered a young age for fossils.

It is normal for winter storms in the area to uncover fossils, which suggests that the tooth may have been washed down to the coast from higher land. Schuh expressed her joy at the prospect of helping to uncover long-buried mysteries about the serene beach region through her discovery. She did not keep the tooth, but she did order a necklace made from a copy of a mastodon tooth as a keepsake of the unusual experience.

Only three mastodon fossil discoveries have been made in the area, and this one is the third. Another tooth and a skull from the same Aptos Creek that empties into the ocean, both discovered by a teenager in 1980, are already in the museum. The significance of the discovery and its potential to advance our knowledge of prehistoric life in the area excited Museum Executive Director Felicia B. Van Stolk.