Ron Barnett and Tim Smith

USA TODAY

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Columbian mammoth survived an ice age, but the South Carolina Senate almost killed it off for good before allowing a key vote Wednesday to make the extinct mammal the official state fossil.

The elephant-sized mammal that once roamed this part of the world is taking a rocky path toward becoming an official state symbol. On Wednesday morning, the dream of 8-year-old Olivia McConnell, who suggested that the Legislature adopt a state fossil, hit a major hurdle.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, a Republican from Gaffney, S.C., known to be on the conservative end of the ideological spectrum, objected to the bill for several hours before lifting his protest, which could have spelled the end of the road for the legislation that passed the state House in February.

"Quite frankly, I thought we had passed a bill in the Senate putting a moratorium on official state whatevers," Peeler said in the morning. "It's nothing against you, nothing against your effort. But I must object to the bill. There's got to be a stopping point."

Previously Peeler had spoken out against state symbols and on Wednesday afternoon inserted an amendment into Olivia's bill to place a moratorium on additional official symbols. State senators then approved House Bill 4482, 35-0.

Olivia's bill, amended twice, will receive a third reading in the Senate before going to the governor for her signature.

Peeler's objection would have made it tough for the bill to proceed if he had not lifted it. To override an objection, two-thirds of the senators would have had to decide to make Olivia's bill a priority item called a special order.

But underlying any debate about official state symbols is something with higher stakes: How science will be taught in the South Carolina public schools.

In February, a legislative committee approved new science standards that include the teaching of evolution but omit the issue of natural selection.

Nearly 90 years after the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, some South Carolina legislators maintain that evolution shouldn't be taught as scientific fact in public schools.

State Sen. Mike Fair, a Greenville Republican who serves on the panel that will decide the science standards, said that natural selection should be taught as theory rather than as scientific fact. He argues that natural selection can make biological changes within species but it can't explain the whole progression from microbes to humans.

"This whole subject should be taught as a pro and con," he said.

Last week, Fair had raised his own objection that temporarily killed Olivia's bill but withdrew it after another senator told him the story of the Lake City girl's campaign to get an official state fossil.

Olivia suggested the mammoth as the official state fossil because fossilized mammoth teeth had been discovered in a swamp in the state in 1725. South Carolina is one of nine states that don't have a state fossil, according to nonprofit State Symbols USA.

Before Fair's objection, state Sen. Kevin Bryant tried unsuccessfully to insert a Bible verse into H 4482. This week, the Republican from Anderson, S.C., put forth a new amendment that was adopted, referring to the animal "as created on the sixth day with the beasts of the field."

"I think it's an appropriate time to acknowledge the creator," he said.

Bryant's original amendment to Olivia's bill quoted three verses from the King James version of the book of Genesis:

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Other lawmakers tossed that amendment out because it introduced "new and independent matter."

Bryant had said he thought his latest amendment would pass muster as a logical extension of the bill.

"Since we're dealing with the fossil of the woolly mammoth, then this amendment would deal with the beginning of the woolly mammoth," he said.

The original version of the bill referred to the woolly mammoth, but it later was changed to honor the Columbian mammoth, a subspecies.

Rick Hahnenberg, a spokesman for the Upstate South Carolina chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he's concerned that legislators' actions on the state fossil issue have been a continuation of a push for religion to be inserted into the science curriculum.

"Obviously we want to have good science standards in South Carolina," he said.

Ron Barnett and Tim Smith also report for The Greenville (S.C.) News.

H 4482, as amended April 2, 2014

Whereas, giant mammoths used to roam South Carolina; and

Whereas, scientists have identified the fossils of about six hundred and fifty species of vertebrates in South Carolina to date; and

Whereas, it has been recognized that fossilized mammoth teeth were discovered in a swamp in South Carolina in 1725; and

Whereas, this discovery has been credited as the first scientific identification of a North American vertebrate fossil. Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Article 9, Chapter 1, Title 1 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Section 1-1-712A. The Columbian Mammoth, which was created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field, is designated as the official State Fossil of South Carolina and must be officially referred to as the 'Columbian Mammoth', which was created on the Sixth Day with the other beasts of the field."

SECTION 2. Subsequent to this act's effective date there is a moratorium on the enactment of legislation establishing official state symbols and emblems until such time as the General Assembly directly by legislative enactment removes this moratorium.

SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.