The remains of a giant creature that roamed the Earth along with the first humans, found in the United States. Photo
The remains of a huge creature that lived at the same time as the world's first humans have been found in Iowa, USA. Archaeologists unearthed several bones and a massive skull of a 13,600-year-old mastodon.
The animal's remains were deep in silt on the bank of a stream. This is the first well-preserved specimen of a mastodon found in the state of Iowa, writes DailyMail.
A well-preserved skull of a mastodon has been found in the United States.
Source: University of Iowa
The discovery was made by a Wayne County local who spotted a femur bone sticking out of the silt. The find prompted archaeologists to scour the region, uncovering a massive skull and other mastodon bones. Using radiocarbon dating, it was determined that the skull was 13,600 years old.
The bones bear the marks of man's deadly blows.
Source: University of Iowa
Unique cuts on mastodon bones suggest it was killed by the first humans for food. "There is potential evidence on the bones themselves - recognizable cuts. We really hope to find other evidence of human interaction with this creature - projectile points and knives that were used to kill the animal and cut it up," said University of Iowa Director and State Archaeologist John Doerschuk.
The archaeology team also found nearby human-made artifacts, such as stone tools, that dated several thousand years after the mastodon skull.
Mastodons are distant relatives of modern elephants and extinct mammoths.
Source: University of Iowa
According to scientists, mastodons are distant relatives of modern elephants and extinct mammoths. They lived in North America alone from 3.5 million to 10,500 years ago.
Mastodons were from over 2 meters tall (females) to over 3 meters tall (males). Mammoths were larger, reaching 4 meters tall and weighed almost 10 tons.
This is what an American mastodon looked like.
Source: wikipedia.org
The tusks of mastodons were less curved than those of mammoths, but larger and longer than those of elephants.
The mastodon had a tusk attached to its skull.
Source: University of Iowa
The most notable feature that distinguishes mastodons from mammoths is their angular teeth. Unlike modern elephants and extinct mammoths, mastodon had angular teeth with distinctive cone-shaped cusps. And mammoths had flat angular teeth with ridges, similar to washboards, which looked completely different from mastodon teeth.
Mastodon skeleton.
Source: wikipedia.org
Interestingly, the discovery in the state of Iowa came a few days after the discovery of mammoth remains in Mississippi.
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