A huge skull of a mammoth-like creature that lived at the same time as early humans has been unearthed by archaeologists. A team from the University of Iowa believe the Mastodon may have been killed and eaten by primitive hunters 13,600 years ago.
It was after they found the first well-preserved mastodon skull which has been scientifically excavated in the North American state.
It is believed to date back to when the first humans lived and hunted in the area. The mastodon was a huge mammal similar to mammoths and elephants which lived across North America from about 3.5 million years ago until only 10,500 years ago.
Their extinction is believed to have been caused by a combination of climate change and hunting.
During the Last Interglacial period around 125,000 to 75,000 years ago, they lived in the Arctic and Subarctic forests.
Around 75,000 years ago, the Wisconsinan glaciation caused habitat loss and a population collapse as the climate changed from forest to vegetation, and the animals were forced to move south of the continental ice sheets.
There is also evidence of Paleo-Americans hunting them in eastern North America around 13,000 years ago, which may have proved to be the final straw, causing their extinction.
The discovery of the skull came about after a member of the public in Wayne County contacted the team in late 2022 after an unusually long bone was found sunk in a creek on private property in the south-west of the county.
The team, led by John Doershuk, director and state archaeologist at the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA), discovered the find was a mastodon femur bone.
It took a year to get the investigation underway and in the autumn of 2023 they visited the site where a broken tusk was also found sticking out from the creek bed.
It also appeared that the tusk was probably still attached to the skull.
Funding was secured for a full dig which began this month as part of a formal scientific investigation.
There was a careful excavation of the entire skull and several additional mastodon bones, all believed to be from the same animal. The skull was determined to be 13,600 years old through Using radiocarbon dating, meaning it overlaps with early human occupation of the area.
Mr Doershuk said: “We’re really hoping to find evidence of human interaction with this creature. Perhaps the projectile points and knives that were used to kill the animal and do initial butchering.
“There’s also potential evidence on the bones themselves – there could be identifiable cut marks.”
During the 12-day dig, the team found several human-made stone tools, but they were aged at a few thousand years after the mastodon skull.
The scientists now plan to investigate any human interaction with the animal and how it came to be deposited in the creek bed.
The OSA and UI Palaeontology Repository, housed in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, will also analyse and conserve the skull and other bones, which will be found a permanent home in an exhibit at the Prairie Trails Museum.
