Utility gang in Cape Coral , Florida , were conducting business as common when they came across something rather out of the ordinary . Buried 17 foot ( 5 meters ) below several stratum of sediment were the remains of a prehistoric colossus that once roamed virtually every continent on Earth .
The ancient bone fragment measuring about 0.3 meters ( 1 foot ) in distance and 25.4 centimeters ( 10 column inch ) across is believed to belong to an out mammalian with a trunk , but the team are n’t sure whether it belongs to a mastodon or mammoth , according to an archaeological report find by IFLScience .
IFLScience spoke with CJ Haddad , the newsman who broke the story . He told us the experts believe the remains pre - date human population in Florida , but that it is backbreaking to determine an exact timeline .
Experts date the remains to around 10,000 years ago to theRancholabrean period , delineate by a glacial hideaway that led to the formation of savannas across Florida , where “ herd of gigantic , bison , antelope and horse roamed the peninsula . ”
The bone itself is in all likelihood part of the distal humerus , a bone that runs from the shoulder down to the elbow to connect the humerus .
" It ’s a moderately large bone fragment and is unlikely to be the only bone in the area , " Ryan Franklin , help theatre director of theArcheological and Historical Conservancy Inc. , who was called in to assess the fossil , secernate theCape - Coral Daily - Breeze .
According to the report , most of these fossil types are found during abstruse mining that involve quarrying , deep utility work , and lake excavations . It ’s evenhandedly common to see other fossils around one of this type and there is likely another larger fossil bottom nearby that contains the cadaver of this animal and others . At a site located 5 klick ( 3 sea mile ) away , archaeologists have recovered quantities of impoverished faunal bone that suggests there could also be a “ bone bed ” deposit there . Because the fossil plausibly predates human occupation of the area , it does not descend under Florida statute that would otherwise halt further development in the sphere .
Mammoths and mastodons could have inhabited Earth at the same meter , but they are two different mintage within theProboscideanfamily , which includes modern - day elephant . While more than 160 extinct mintage have been incur on every continent but Australia and Antarctica , only three remain today .
The fossil will be donated to theCape Coral Historical Society .
[ H / TCape - Coral Daily - Breeze ]
