(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Charles Robert Knight)
A man from Florida could make thousands after discovering the remains of a prehistoric monster.
Mastodon Tusk Found on Venice Beach
Alex Lundberg, 29, found a rare gem while diving with his pals near Venice Beach in Florida. He descended 25 feet to retrieve a four-foot mastodon tusk. According to Lundberg, the tusk belonged to a mastodon, a distant relative of the woolly mammoth that existed 10 million years ago.
Since five years ago, Lundberg has been looking for fossils close to Venice Beach, which is well-known for having hundreds of fossilized shark teeth.
Nevertheless, based on other fossils they found found from that region, he calculated that the tusk is between 10,000 and 500,000 years old.
Bradenton's Bishop Museum of Science and Nature verified that the item was a mammoth tusk and dubbed it "super rare" because only prehistoric shark teeth and broken bits of mammoth tusks are normally found there.
For the Florida Museum of Natural History to assess if Lundberg's research has any scientific significance, he must submit his findings.
Mastodon tusks that are only a few inches long sell for $20 to $350. However, Lundberg estimated that his 60-pound tusk might be worth $5,000.
When he pulled the mastodon tusk from the sea floor, it didn't break apart, which surprised the part-time fossil hunter and scuba diver.
According to Lundberg, all he could see when he initially spotted it was a narrow strip exposed in the sand. He realized it was a whole tusk when he began to spread the sand and noticed its cross-section. Using a beach towel as a sling, they threw it over the boat's edge.
"It's absolutely surreal that it came up in one piece, didn't break apart at all," he added.
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What Is a Mastodon?
Mastodon is one of several extinct elephantine mammals that initially appeared in the early Miocene (23 million to 2.6 million years ago) and persisted in different forms during the Pleistocene Epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). They belong to the family Mammutidae and the genus Mamut.
The unique, albeit somewhat archaic, grinding teeth of the mastodons, which seem to have eaten on leaves, are one of their defining characteristics. They have four or more pronounced ridges spaced by deep troughs, and they are huge, well-rooted, and low-crowned. However, the teeth are significantly smaller and less complicated compared to genuine elephants.
The long, conspicuous top tusks grew upwards, curved, and parallel to one another. Males had short lower tusks, whereas females did not have any.
Mastodons most likely continued to exist in North America during the Pleistocene era, making them contemporary with Paleo-Indian populations. They lived throughout the planet, and their remains are frequently found and in excellent condition.
It is highly unusual for a mastodon to be found in Florida, as the US only has four states—Indiana, Colorado, California, and New York—where fossilized mastodon tusks, bones, and heads are commonly found.
Approximately 12 complete mastodon skeletons have been discovered in Florida, whereas over 140 have been found in New York State alone.
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