Posted on 05/29/2025 11:26:46 AM PDT by Red Badger
A quiet afternoon on a farm turned into a moment of prehistoric discovery. What this teen uncovered could rewrite part of ancient history.
What began as a simple search for arrowheads on an Iowa farm turned into an extraordinary encounter with the past. A teenager’s unexpected discovery of a 34,000-year-old mastodon jaw is now capturing the attention of scientists and shedding new light on Ice Age life in North America.
Chance Find Reveals Ancient Ice Age Resident
The student was simply enjoying a day outdoors when he came across a large bone fragment partially embedded in the ground. Curious, he lifted the heavy object and carried it to the farmhouse. Experts later identified it as the jawbone of a juvenile mastodon, an extinct relative of the modern elephant that once roamed vast portions of North America.
According to Tiffany Adrain, special collections manager at the University of Iowa’s Paleontology Repository, the fossil still held enough moisture that drying it in the sun could have ruined it. She emphasized how critical it was to keep the specimen wrapped and protected. “He cradled the fossil in his arms, which is very heavy, and carried it up to the farmhouse,” she explained.
The jaw, measuring approximately 30 inches, is believed to have belonged to a young mastodon that likely stood about 7 feet tall. The condition of the fossil was so fresh that scientists had to act quickly to preserve its integrity.
Not Just Prehistoric Elephants
Mastodons, often mistaken for mammoths, were distinct in both physical traits and behavior. Unlike mammoths, which had high-crowned teeth suitable for grazing, mastodons had ridged molars adapted for chewing branches and leaves. This difference in diet gives paleontologists clues about their habitats, which included dense forests and wetlands.
According to this study, these animals thrived during the Late Pleistocene epoch, which spanned from around 129,000 to 11,700 years ago. Though they once flourished across North and Central America for over 20 million years, shifting climates and ecological changes eventually led to their extinction.
In the region that is now Iowa, creatures such as giant ground sloths, massive bears, and mammoths also roamed freely. Today’s expansive farmland was once teeming with these large mammals, suggesting a dramatically different landscape shaped by millennia of climate evolution and vegetation shifts.
Credit: Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen
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Students Are Logging Ancient Bones
The quick decision to wrap the mastodon jaw in plastic played a pivotal role in its conservation. Once exposed to air and light, such fossils can degrade within weeks. Water erosion and streambeds are often the sites where bones resurface after thousands of years underground, but preserving them requires immediate care.
In this case, the landowners donated the fossil to the Paleontology Repository, opting for discretion to avoid unwanted attention or disturbance to their property. Their contribution ensures that the jaw will be professionally studied and made available to future researchers.
The University of Iowa’s repository houses more than a million artifacts, with around 148,000 already cataloged with help from local high school and college students. This hands-on collaboration provides young people with real-world scientific experience while helping scientists build detailed records of extinct species.
PinGGG!...........................
“… mammoths had high-crowned teeth”
Did their dentists use anesthetic?
Prehistoric Orthodontia was pretty barbaric....................
Iowa
6th freaking paragraph
Actually, 3rd sentence.
“...a dramatically different landscape shaped by millennia of climate evolution and vegetation shifts.”
By any chance does this mean “climate change”?
Years ago, my in laws farmed west Iowa up in the hills and once in a while they would uncover Native American bones in the spring thaw. They’d call the sheriff who would usually contact one of the universities who determined it was Indian remains.
What I found scary is my wife’s father and grandfather both died on the same tractor and field where the bones were found. Her cousin and I were working on cleaning up a house fire when he told me tat story.
“ Actually, 3rd sentence”
Correct
I get impatient when it’s not in title or. First sentence
That’s exactly what it means...............
Actually, when a writer, whether they are young or old, writes with a pen on paper or types on keyboard about a person or an event that they do not a name until halfway through their article,
it can drive a person—to some degree—NUTS!
LIKE ME, AFTER TYPING THIS!
8+)
I keep up w the news. FR has been perfect for me since 1998
I work really hard Very busy
Quick headline move on
Kid finds whatever in Iowa. Period move on
Kid finds something
What? Where is it. I can read later if I want
But where is it. I gotta open it what? Why.
Where is he
That’s time away I don’t need to spend
If I posted articles which I don’t. I would put it in first comment
Re write stupid headline
Kid. Iowa. Mastodon head
So they’re going to blame fossil fuels? Did this fossil fuel the demise of it’s own kind? (We don’t have video on FR yet, so you may not notice that my tongue is in my Cheek.)
OR:
Skull,scroll kid.
Kid, scroll skull.
Scroll, kid skull.
Ok, guess short headlines don’t always work real well!
:(
[singing] he was nowhere near downtown, just lookin' for some tusks...
At some point most people have the face they deserve...
Mastodon farts and burps. Ask AOC, she knows.
Where I live was absolutely lousy with Indians.
I rode my horse out in the woods all the time and there were lots of small
“ mounds” which my grandfather said were burial sites.
I was told to avoid them completely.
After my grandparents died I wish I knew what happened to the HUGE cardboard box full of arrowheads
Every time he plowed, they’d turn up by the hundreds.
Your recollection is indeed spooky.
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