Office of the State Archaeologist, Iowa
Posted on 08/18/2024 9:38:16 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archeologists unearthed an ancient mastodon skull from an Iowa creek this month — marking the first ever discovered in the state.
It took 12 days for excavators to slowly recover the massive fossil, which was so well preserved that it still had a significant section of its once-curved tusk...
Radiocarbon dating shows that the mastodon died in the Paleoindian period — and had been buried undetected for 13,600 years.
Mastodons — a 6-ton distant cousin to modern-day elephants — went extinct in North America around 10,500 years ago...
Though other remains of the mastodon were recovered, the skull was the most well-preserved piece of the skeleton, with archeologists calling the 2-foot section of tusk a "goldmine."
"Apparently there are techniques now to determine how many calves a female mastodon had that get recorded as a chemical signature because of the changes in the body chemistry during the pregnancy and the birth. And that gets recorded in the tusks," State Archeologist John Doershuk told Iowa Public Radio...
The OSA did not find any stone tools near the bones, but scientists will analyze whether any human-made cut marks were left on the skeleton.
Although the bones were only excavated this month, the eroding site was brought to the OSA's attention in 2022...
Wayne County is located along Iowa's southern border with Missouri and is 80 miles south of Des Moines.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
Thanks for the link!
Mastodon or Mammoth?....................
Looks like a mastodon to me.
But then I’m going by what the experts called it:)
Bkmk
I’d get more interested in what they’d find if they were digging up a certain stadium’s foundation in NJ...
— and had been buried undetected for 13,600 years.
Naw, we knew it was there but we really didn’t care.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/mammoth-or-mastodon.htm
Very, VERY cool! :)
“ Mastodons — a 6-ton distant cousin to modern-day elephants — went extinct in North America around 10,500 years ago, likely due to climate change and hunting.”
It was all of those cars being driven around back then
:^)
He was probably running for it, because Fred Flintstone was taking his family to the take-out joint.
If no cuts or stone tool traces are fount with the remains, then I vote for this animal being a victim of the meteor strike(s) recorded in the book at comment 2. A lot of animals and humans probably died back then, but it took another 3,000 years for this type of elephants to finish dying off in North America.
You may be thinking of ‘dwarf’ mammoths which apparently persisted on arctic islands off Siberia until 2-3 thousand years ago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
