Rare Mammoth Tusk from the Ice Age Discovered in Rural Mississippi: 'Incredible Find'
Artifact and fossil collector Eddie Templeton was "exploring in rural Madison County" when he made the shocking — and historic — discovery
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Columbian mammothsA mammoth discovery was just unearthed in Mississippi — literally!
Artifact and fossil collector Eddie Templeton was "exploring in rural Madison County" last week when he made a shocking discovery of “what appeared to be a portion of an ice-age elephant tusk exposed in a steep embankment,” the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) said in a news release published on Aug. 9.
"Eddie knew that acting quickly on the significant find was important," officials wrote, noting that " just the heat of afternoon summer sun alone could dry a specimen like this out, destroying it, and it could quickly be lost forever."
By the time a paleontological team arrived, they found that the fossil was "in amazing condition" — and that based on the "strong curvature of the massive tusk," they believed it belonged to a Columbian mammoth.
Columbian mammoths, which are much larger than wooly mammoths, lived during the Pleistocene epoch, which began about 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
Experts believe that this particular mammoth was likely alive between 10,000 - 20,000 years ago, according to local newspaperThe Clarion-Ledger.
"It didn't occur to me it could be a mammoth tusk," Templeton said, per the outlet. "I always hoped to find a part of a mammoth, but that's pretty rare down here."
In fact, paleontologist George Phillips, who came in contact with the fossil through the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, told the newspaper that this marked the first Columbian mammoth tusk to ever officially be documented in the state.
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After finding the tusk, Templeton, along with the MDEQ team, “carefully removed the clayey sand alluvial Pleistocene matrix from around the tusk to expose the 7 foot long fossil in its entirety,” the organization said.
Luckily, the tusk was deposited wholly intact, which the MDEQ said is “an extremely rare find for Mississippi,” as the majority of “fossil tusk ivory found around the state are just fragments and most are likely to be attributable to the more common mastodon.”
Related: Boy, 12, Finds Woolly Mammoth Tooth at Family Reunion in Ohio
Once discovered, the mammoth fossil weighed in around 600 lbs. and was taken up a 50 foot bluff “and onto a truck where it was delivered to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science for further curation and careful study,” the MDEQ said.
A paleontologist from the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science then confirmed that the fossil tusk belonged to a mammoth.
In a social media post last week, MDEQ officials said that "This incredible find is now in the hands of our friends at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science for preservation."
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