Listen, this is a big problem.
Archaeologists unearthed an ancient mastodon skull from a stream in Iowa this month, the first such find to come from the state.
It took excavators 12 days to slowly recover the enormous fossil, which was remarkably well preserved, including a large portion of the once-curved tusk.
“This is the first well-preserved mastodon, primarily a skull, to be unearthed in Iowa.” Office of the State Archaeologist.
Radiocarbon dating determined that the mastodon died during Paleoindian time and lay buried, undiscovered, for 13,600 years.
The six-ton mastodon, a distant relative of modern elephants, became extinct in North America about 10,500 years ago due to climate change and hunting.
Other mastodon remains were found, but the skull is the best-preserved part of the skeleton, and archaeologists are calling the two-foot tusk a “gold mine.”
“Apparently, we now have the technology to determine how many calves a female mastodon has given birth to, because the chemical changes in her body during pregnancy and birth record a chemical signature, which is then recorded in the tusks,” said State Archaeologist John Dorschuk. He told Iowa Public Radio.
Scientists also hope the fossils will help answer big questions about human history, such as how our ancestors played a role in the extinction of mastodons.
The age of the fossils coincides with the time of Native American migration into south-central Iowa.
““During the last Ice Age, northern Iowa would have still been covered in ice, but the southern part was ice-free and vegetation was beginning to grow there. Animals like mastodons would have traveled there to feed, and it would have been a good place for human hunters to live,” Dorschuk said.
The OSA did not find any stone tools near the bones, but scientists will analyze the skeleton to see if it retained any traces of human cutting.
The bones were only unearthed this month, but the eroded site only came to OSA’s attention in 2022.
The mastodon bones will be thoroughly studied and analyzed, and will become part of a new exhibit at the nearby Prairie Trails Museum.
Wayne County is located on the southern Iowa-Kentucky border, 80 miles south of Des Moines.
