The well-preserved skull of an extinct mastodon has been discovered in Iowa. Officials from the University of Iowa's Office of the State Archaeologist said a 12-day excavation yielded "several mastodon bones," largely from the skull of the massive animal, belonging to the same order as elephants and mammoths. Mastodons roamed North and Central America from 3.5 million years ago to about 10,500 years ago. This one, dated to 13,600 years ago, is in "pristine condition," per Fox News.
"We're really hoping to find evidence of human interaction with this creature—perhaps the projectile points and knives that were used to kill the animal and do initial butchering," said state archaeologist John Doershuk, per NPR. "There's also potential evidence on the bones themselves—there could be identifiable cut marks." Iowa Archaeology said it was the first-ever well-preserved mastodon excavated in the state, per Fox. The bones were taken from an eroding creek bank in Wayne County and will eventually find a place at the Prairie Trails Museum in Corydon, the university said.
Meanwhile, an amateur fossil hunter came upon a 7-foot-long mammoth tusk while scouring a creek bank in Mississippi on August 3. Eddie Templeton tells CNN he was wading through about three feet of water when he spotted the tusk sticking out of the mud bank. It turned out to be completely intact. George Phillips, curator of paleontology at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, confirmed it belonged to a Columbian mammoth, a distant relative of the woolly mammoth. It has not been dated but is likely between 11,700 and 75,000 years old, Phillips said. (More discoveries stories.)
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