A 13,600-year-old mastodon skull was uncovered in an Iowa creek, state officials announced this week.
Iowa’s Office of the State Archaeologist said in a social media post that archaeologists found the well-preserved skull on the side of a creek bed in Wayne County on Wednesday at an excavation site they had been excavating for the past 12 days.
During the nearly two-week dig, several mastodon bones were recovered, but the skull was somewhat unique, as it was the “first well-preserved mastodon ever (mainly the skull) to be excavated in Iowa,” the post said.
Office of the State Archaeologist, Iowa
“I never thought in a million years I would have the experience of excavating the skull of a mastodon,” wrote Facebook user Dan Clark in the comments section.
Radiocarbon dating showed an age of around 13,600 years old, the post said, and archaeologists will carefully examine the bones to determine if any evidence of human activity, such as cut marks, is present.
Mastodons – a prehistoric mammal related to mammoths and today’s elephants – roamed the earth as far back as 23 million years ago. Mastodons became extinct about 10,000 years ago but their bones have been found all over North America.
Some of these fossils have appeared by chance, while others are found by architects hunting for these relics of the past. In June, a fossil diver found a large part of baits from a long extinct Mastodon off the Gulf Coast in Florida.
Office of the State Archaeologist, Iowa
Last year, a tourist on a beach in Northern California saw one giant one foot tooth that once belonged to an ancient mastodon. In 2019, workers dug a sewer line in Indiana found the bones of a Mastodon. The haul included most of a bait, parts of a skull and a jawbone with teeth.
contributed to this report.