Archaeologists find mastodon skull in Iowa, search for evidence it interacted with humans

Archeologists in Iowa believe they have unearthed an ancient mastodon skull dating back to when the first humans were roaming the Earth.

Discovered in the southern part of the state, the find is Iowa's first well-preserved mastodon, according to the University of Iowa’s Office of the State Archaeologist. Scientists and local community members recently undertook a 12-day excavation at the site, which yielded “several mastodon bones,” primarily from the skull.

Radiocarbon dating then allowed the team of researchers to estimate that the specimen is about 13,600 years old, meaning the mastodon would have been alive around the time that the first humans were living and hunting in the area, the university said.

Researchers will next analyze the bones looking for any evidence that humans came across this particular mastodon.

Dinosaur extinction:Scientists think they know the origin of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs

Mastodon skull estimated to be 13,600 years old

Mastodons, large mammals similar to both elephants and mammoths, roamed North America from around 3.5 million years ago until 10,500 years ago.

A resident of Wayne County contacted John Doershuk, Iowa's state archaeologist, in 2022 after stumbling upon an unusually long bone embedded in a creek bed on private property.

The bone turned out to be a mastodon femur, prompting archeologists to further investigate the site last fall. While there, they also uncovered a broken tusk protruding from the creek bed that they believe was likely still attached to mastodon's skull.

After securing funding for another dig, the team returned this month "to carefully excavate the skull and several additional mastodon bones, likely all from the same animal," the University of Iowa said in a news release.

Scientists search for evidence of human interaction with mastodon

The 12-day excavation also led archaeologists to uncover several human-made artifacts, such as stone tools.

The tools were dated to a few thousand years after the mastodon skull, but the team was still encouraged to find the first-ever evidence of "human existence in the creek drainage."

Now, the scientists hope more archaeological finds, coupled with documentation of the bones’ orientation and location, could lead to evidence of "human interaction" with the specimen, as well as "how and why the creature came to be deposited in the creek bed."

“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,” Doershuk said in a statement. “There’s also potential evidence on the bones themselves – there could be identifiable cut marks.”

Other similar fossil finds

The discovery is the latest in a string of prehistoric finds across the United States.

Earlier this month, a man in Mississippi found a mammoth tusk, a rarity for the state. And in May, a Florida man discovered a 4-foot mastodon tusk at the bottom of the ocean while searching for fossils near the coast of Venice.

In May 2023, coal miners in North Dakota unearthed a 7-foot-long mammoth tusk buried for thousands of years near Beulah, located about 80 miles northwest of Bismarck. Following a 12-day excavation, scientists recovered more than 20 bones from the skeleton that were determined to be one of the most complete mammoth skeletons ever discovered in the state.

How to see the Iowa mastodon bones

The mastodon bones are slated to become part of a new exhibit at the Prairie Trails Museum in Corydon once scientists at the University of Iowa analyze and conserve the skull and other recovered bones.