A schoolboy in New Mexico accidentally discovered fossils that are 1.2 million years old

While in the arid desert in New Mexico, a 10-year-old student stumbled and fell. Looking around, he discovered ancient fossils, whose age, as it turned out, is 1.2 million years old. These remains belonged to a large herbivore, known as stegomastodon. These animals died out about 28 thousand years ago.

How did you find the fossils

"I ran and stumbled over a part of the tusk," says 10-year-old Jude Sparks, who was at the time in the desert with his family and played with his brother. "When I fell, my face was next to the petrified lower jaw. Then I saw another tusk. "

At first Jude thought that the remains he found are cow's, although it soon became clear that this assumption is far from the truth. The family turned to Professor Peter Hode from the University of New Mexico. He managed to repair the whole skull. As a result of further excavation of the site, other fossils were discovered hidden beneath the surface.

Excavations

It took months to get permission for the final excavation of the entire fossil, but even then this process seemed laborious and very delicate. Scientists estimate that the skull of an extinct animal weighs about a ton, but at the same time, the find is incredibly fragile and in some places resembles an egg shell. When scientists began to cleanse the skull from the deposits, its bones began to fall apart into tiny pieces. It was necessary to prevent the destruction of these valuable remains, and therefore during excavations they were reinforced with a special chemical substance.

Although you do not have many chances to find fossil remains of stegomastodon in New Mexico, in fact it is not the first such case. In 2014, members of a bachelor party accidentally discovered an almost complete fossil of the animal, which was eventually collected at the Museum of Natural History of New Mexico. Nevertheless, only a few hundred fossils of stegomastodons have been found all over the world, and scientists still do not know why they are so rare.

What do we know about stegomastodons

Stegomastodon belonged to a group known as gompoteric. These bizarre animals were distant cousins of the more famous mammoths and modern elephants. It is believed that stegomastodon was quite unusual even for his family, since many gomphoteric on his head had four tusks, but he looked more like modern elephants, having only two.

"Most people will not see any significant differences between stegomastodon and the modern elephant," said Hode. - This kind of gomphotericia was most common in this region. Nevertheless, it is still considered very rare. This is the second full skull that was found in New Mexico. "