An avid artifact and fossil collector not too long ago got here throughout a shocking discovery earlier than alerting the Mississippi Division of Environmental High quality (MDEQ).
Eddie Templeton discovered a portion of an Ice Age-era, Columbian mammoth tusk uncovered in a steep embankment whereas exploring in Madison County.
DEQ’s Mississippi State Geological Survey scientists labored with the Mississippi Museum of Pure Science to correctly excavate and stabilize the tusk.
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Templeton and the crew spent a complete day cleansing the tusk to reveal the 7-foot-long ivory fossil.

Eddie Templeton (pictured) discovered a portion of an Ice Age-era elephant tusk uncovered in a steep embankment whereas exploring in Madison County, Mississippi. ( Mississippi Division of Environmental High quality )
“It was suspected primarily based on the sturdy curvature of the large tusk that Eddie and the crew had been coping with a Columbian mammoth and never that of the extra frequent mastodon. This may be the primary of its form for the realm,” stated a MDEQ press launch.
Mississippi Museum of Pure Science paleontologists confirmed the tusk did belong to a mammoth.
“Mississippi was house to a few Proboscideans over the last ice age: Mastodon, Gomphothere and the Columbian mammoth. All three possessed ivory tusks. Mastodons are by far the most typical Proboscidean finds in Mississippi as they had been browsers, like trendy deer and inhabited a wide range of completely different environments,” stated the discharge.
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Columbian mammoths had been bigger than wooly mammoths that roamed the colder, extra northern areas of North America, rising as much as 15 ft and weighing over 10 tons, in accordance with the MDEQ.

Columbian mammoths had been bigger than wooly mammoths that roamed the northern areas of North America, rising as much as 15 ft and weighing over 10 tons, in accordance with the MDEQ. ( Mississippi Division of Environmental High quality )
“These colossal mammals performed an necessary function in sustaining the wealthy fertile prairie ecosystem, a lot as their trendy elephant kin do in different elements of the world right now. This ice-age prairie ecosystem of what’s now Madison County was additionally house to herds of now extinct horses and big bison together with big floor sloths, big tortoises and tapirs,” stated the discharge.
Scientists created a plaster jacket by overlaying the fossil with aluminum foil and burlap to be taught extra in regards to the animal.
“Our discipline scientists interpreted the mammoth tusk specimen to be leaning up in opposition to the sting of an historic sandbar of a stream whereas a portion of it relaxation on the ground of stream channel.”
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“This may have been simply earlier than it was utterly coated with alluvium entombing the fossil, presumably the results of a storm leading to a serious flooding occasion,” stated the discharge.

Scientists concluded that the mammoth seemingly had died close by, and its stays had been then carried alongside the Mississippi stream’s channel. (Mississippi Division of Environmental High quality )
It was concluded the animal seemingly had died close by, and its stays had been then carried alongside the stream’s channel.
“Eddie’s discovery provides a uncommon window into the Columbian mammoths that after roamed Madison County alongside the Jackson Prairie of central Mississippi,” stated the discharge.
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Fox Information Digital reached out to the MDEQ and Eddie Templeton for added remark.