Eddie Templeton has spent his free time scouring creek banks in Mississippi since he was a child, and has come across many interesting fossils along the way. This month, Templeton was wading through Madison County waters when he spotted a large object emerging from the mud bank. Upon further inspection, he realized that it was a 7-foot-long mammoth tusk. Paleontologists at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science determined that the perfectly in-tact tusk came from a Columbian mammoth that lived in the Pleistocene Epoch. It could be anywhere from 11,700 and 75,000 years old and is a first-of-its-kind finding in the area. The tusk weighs over 600 pounds, making it difficult to excavate from the swampy terrain. Paleontologists safely transported the mammoth tusk to the museum, where experts are studying the discovery and restoring it for preservation.
Image via CNN
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