A thousand-year-old mammoth jaw was found by a diver from Florida

Florida has always been a place that hides all kinds of secrets, and a recent find has added to this rich paleontological list. John Kreatsoulas, a full-time diver and charter boat captain, came across the remains of a mammoth mandible while diving in the Peace River near the town of Arcadia.

At first, the author of the find decided that it was part of a wooden log. However, after he examined the "wood" he found, it seemed more like a bone, part of a mammoth jaw.

For the past 20 years, John Kreatsoulas has been diving in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico in South Florida. He began to be interested in the search for petrified animal remains as a child. This happened after his parents took him to Italy, where John found some shark teeth as a boy.

According to the author of the find, the jaw impresses with its structure. It may belong to a mammoth that lived more than 10,000 years ago, when the climate and landscape in this region were completely different. The found jaw may date back to the end of the last ice age.

Creatsoulas plans to take the jawbone to be cleaned and analyzed by experts in Tampa, who will be able to determine the age of the fossils using radiocarbon dating. The bone will also be registered with the state of Florida, so it will later be donated to the museum.

It's not known for sure which species of mammoth the fossil belonged to, but Columbian mammoths inhabited North America — and as far south as Costa Rica — during the Pleistocene (2.6 million years to 11,700 years ago). High temperatures have caused a loss of habitat for this megafauna, which, combined with human hunting, has resulted in significant population declines.

Estimating the age and structure of a specimen is studied by scientists from various fields, including archaeologists, paleontologists, and geologists. Their findings may reveal not only the history of the mammoth, but also important data about the climatic and ecological changes that took place in the region thousands of years ago.

The scientists also plan to investigate the location of the jaw for possible other artifacts or remains that may reveal more about the history of ancient eras.

Source: livescience.com