Archeologists In Iowa Discover Massive Creature

Archeologists In Iowa Discover Massive Creature

University of Iowa Archeologists have discovered the first ever preserved mastodon skull excavated from Iowa.

A mastodon is a massive mammal that is similar to elephants or mammoths.

Archeologists discovered the skull after a resident of Wayne County contacted the Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist and reported seeing a long bone in a creek.

The bone ended up being a mastodon femur, and further excavation led to the skull’s discovery.

Take a look:

Per Iowa Now:

University of Iowa archaeologists have uncovered the first-ever well-preserved mastodon skull scientifically excavated from the state of Iowa — a find that notably dates to when the first humans lived and hunted in the area.

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A mastodon is a large mammal similar to both elephants and mammoths that roamed North America from around 3.5 million years ago until 10,500 years ago. The archaeologists, who include John Doershuk, director and state archaeologist at the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA), were contacted in the fall of 2022 by a local resident of Wayne County. The resident knew someone who had stumbled upon an unusually long bone embedded in a creek bed on private property in the southwest part of the county.

The bone, which turned out to be a mastodon femur, caught the state archaeologists’ attention.

The team returned the following fall to investigate. While there, they also uncovered a broken tusk protruding from the creek bed. All signs suggested that the tusk was likely still attached to the skull — an intriguing discovery that prompted formal scientific investigation.

Mastodon skull excavated from Iowa creek in ‘goldmine’ discovery https://t.co/4EeXUaDCUc pic.twitter.com/jd2mUD3VXI

— New York Post (@nypost) August 18, 2024

Per The New York Post:

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.

“This is the first-ever well-preserved mastodon (primarily the skull) that has been excavated in Iowa,” said the state Office of the State Archaeologist.