A jaw fragment from an ancient lion species that went extinct thousands of years ago is one of the previously sunken treasures that has been revealed by the ongoing dry spell.
At the end of October, a resident of Oxford, Mississippi, was looking at a sandbar. Black teeth were found in the sand.
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Prewitt said that he could tell from the teeth that it was a fragment of a carnivore's jaw. I wouldn't let myself believe that it was correct.
Prewitt went to the Mississippi Fossil and Artifact Symposium to ask experts about his findings. This was the jaw of a lion.
Prewitt's discovery has excited people. According to The Sun Herald, there are only three other fossils from Mississippi. States in the West are more likely to find ancient predator remains. The American lion went extinct about 11,000 years ago, and researchers think these lions weighed between 500 to 800 pounds.
Kate Lyons, a paleoecologist at the University of Nebraska, told Earther that she thinks it is due to activity impacts. It has been suggested that humans hunted large mammals to extinction during the last ice age.
Lyons said that the big cats were related to the African lion. It is rare for a fossil like this to be found because there aren't as many predators in the landscape.
She said that it was not uncommon for fragments to be found for each extinct mammal. The big cats are cool. I will fangirl over a fossil of a big cat.
According to Lyons, anyone who finds mammal bones or fossils along the Mississippi River should take the item to a museum. Museums are often able to assess fossils. The fossil should not be broken if it feels delicate. The hard parts that are left in the fossil record of mammals make them robust.
The sunken wooden ship that may have been constructed in the late 1800s was discovered by low water levels around Baton Rouge. The ship sank in 1915 after being damaged in a storm.
Shipping has been disrupted in several states due to the dry spell. Cruises have had to change their schedules and barges have run aground. The lower water levels have resulted in less cargo being carried by barges.
The country is in for another dry winter according to theNOAA. Climate change has caused 42% of the country's dry conditions to be caused by humans.
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