go Daisy!!

Dog Discovers Mammoth Bone
10/8/2007

While strolling along an English beach with her owner, little Daisy the dachshund was ecstatic when she sniffed out a bone in the sand. The only problem? It turned out to be a little tough for her to chew – the bone was the same size as the dog herself.

In fact, the eight-pound bone was part of a fossilized thigh bone from a wooly mammoth, which has been extinct for nearly 2 million years. Scientists say that the fossil had probably been buried beneath the sand for thousands of years before the shifting tides brought it up near the surface. Now, thanks to Daisy's digging skills, it's finally been brought to light.

Unfortunately, the little dog didn't get to chow down on this historic treat. Don't feel too bad for her, though – according to geologist Bob Markham, the jumbo bone wouldn't have tasted nearly as good as it looked: "It would certainly have been very tasty a couple of million years ago, when it would have had bits of fat attached to it - but it is now heavily mineralized with iron oxide," he told the UK's Daily Mail.

We guess the fossil-finding dog will just have to stay satisfied with a slightly smaller meal: The bone from her owner's Sunday leg of lamb roast. Sure, it's not quite as exciting as a mammoth bone – but it's a whole lot fresher.

Unable to dig it up, she waited for owner Dennis Smith to arrive - and he was stunned to see the 13in, 8lb thigh section sticking out of the sand.

The bone on the beach at Dunwich, near Southwold, Suffolk, is believed to be from a Southern Elephant, a type of mammoth once common in East Anglia.

And it was a good job Daisy, a miniature wire-haired dachshund, wasn't around when the creature was alive - they grew up to 14ft high and weighed 16 tons.