Tests on mastodon bone vindicate WSU prof

Modern tests have vindicated the theory of a now-retired Washington State University professor who found a mastodon bone in Sequim in 1977 with a shaft sticking in it.

Carl Gustafson says it shows hunters stuck a weapon in the animal's ribs 13,800 years ago — earlier than most experts thought the first people had migrated to North America.

But other scientists ignored his findings or thought that mastodon could have been attacked by another animal such as an elk.

The Seattle Times reports more research using DNA analysis and a CT scan shows the shaft was a mastodon bone whittled to a point. It was a human-made weapon.

Now 75, Gustafson says he's happy to be proven right.