A 6-year-old boy in Michigan, USA, accidentally stepped on a “strange object” while playing with his family at the Rochester Hills Dinosaur Nature Preserve. The fossil was identified as belonging to a “beast” that is at least 11,000 years old.
According to CNN, the boy’s family, named Julian Gagnon, sent the fossil to the University of Michigan for analysis. The specimen, about the size of an adult hand, has been identified as a giant mastodon tooth.
Julian Gagnon with the fossil he discovered – (Photo: CNN)
Mastodons are an extinct genus of the family Mammutidae that roamed across North America and many regions of the world during the Ice Age. These creatures could grow over 3 meters long and weigh more than 8 tons.
Close-up of the mastodon tooth fossil – (Photo: DAILY MAIL).
Speaking to the MDIV channel, Dr. Abigail Drake, a specialist from the University of Michigan’s Museum of Natural History, stated that mastodon fossils are very rare. This species went extinct worldwide about 11,000 years ago, and most of their fossils have been lost due to natural processes and human activities over time.
The fossil has not been accurately dated yet, but it is certainly at least 11,000 years old and could be much older.
According to Daily Mail, the mastodon was previously thought to be a creature of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, but some similar fossils have shown that they adapted to significantly warmer areas with abundant water and foliage for food.
Mastodon – (Graphic illustration by H. Harder)
However, global warming has made these areas hot, contributing to the “population collapse” of this massive beast, as they still required a sufficiently cold environment to some extent.
During the late Ice Age, mastodons were trapped by Earth’s topography in the southern regions of the polar ice cap, inadvertently encountering the first humans who settled North America, leading to overhunting and eventual extinction.
