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“This is one of the rare examples where industry and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the province’s non-renewable fossil record come together,” he said.

“Human activity in Saskatchewan — whether it’s road construction, gravel pits, surface strip mining or even subsurface traditional mining — accesses rocks that we can’t get to on a normal basis, and so the potential is there for industry to initiate some really extreme and wonderful discoveries, not just on the fossil history of the province, but on the fossil history of this planet.”

The fossil discovered by Inland Aggregates is likely between 12,000 and 15,000 years old, dating back to the Pleistocene era, when the province was covered by ice and occupied by large mammals.

Based on its smooth edges, it was likely tossed around in glacial run-off for some time before coming to rest in what is now land just east of Saskatoon.

Conservation of the fossil began immediately after it was discovered to prevent any erosion.

“Fossils are not like picking potatoes; once they’re exposed, they start to erode and break up, and in a matter of weeks, months or even a year, they become totally destroyed,” Tokaryk said

Efforts to prevent this largely involved “saturat(ing) the heck out of it with thin glue,” he said. The fossil is now wrapped in cellophane and tucked away in Eastend, about 400 kilometres southwest of Regina.

The tusk — one of the largest woolly mammoth fossils discovered in Saskatchewan — can be made available to researchers doing work on woolly mammoths now or in the future, Tokaryk said.

He encourages other industry players to report such finds if they stumble across them.

Workers at Inland Aggregates certainly hope to do so again.

“The guys are all pretty excited about it, so they’re keeping their eyes open to see if they can find anything else, that’s for sure,” Lucik said.

ahill@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/MsAndreaHill