MAMMOTH DISCOVERY
Scuba divers find HUGE Ice Age mammoth bone in Florida river
SHOCKED scuba divers have found a huge 50 pound mammoth bone in a Florida river.
The two men were diving in the Peace River when they made the Ice Age discovery.
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Derek Demeter and Henry Sadler found the ancient bone which stands at four foot high.
Demeter, Seminole State Planetarium's director, : "Henry is my dive buddy.
"He yelled out to me, said, 'Hey, Derek. I found something!' Oh my goodness!' It was really, really cool."
The divers think the bone belonged to to a Columbian mammoth.
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It may have been roaming around Florida anytime between 2.6 million and 10,000 years ago when conditions where much more cold and icy.
Experts may find it tricky to determine its precise age.
Demeter : "This one's much more dense, so we kind of think it's somewhere in the middle. Probably 100,000 years old."
The two men also discovered parts on an extinct shark and a sabre tooth tiger tooth on the same day.
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They consider themselves amateur palaeontologists and are often making amazing discoveries.
Demeter said: "The thing I love about it is, just like astronomy, it's time traveling. It plays with the imagination so you go 'Wow, what was going on at this time?"
The mammoth bone find may head to a museum one day but for now it's heading for Sadler's classroom so he can teach his students about the Ice Age.
A timeline of life on Earth
Here's a brief history of life on our planet
- 4.6billion years ago – the origin of Earth
- 3.8billion years ago – first life appears on Earth
- 2.1billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve
- 1.5billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge
- 550million years ago – first arthropods evolve
- 530million years ago – first fish appear
- 470million years ago – first land plants appear
- 380million years ago – forests emerge on Earth
- 370million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land
- 320million years ago – earliest reptiles evolve
- 230million years ago – dinosaurs evolve
- 200million years ago – mammals appear
- 150million years ago – earliest birds evolve
- 130million years ago – first flowering plants
- 100million years ago – earliest bees
- 55million years ago – hares and rabbits appear
- 30million years ago – first cats evolve
- 20million years ago – great apes evolve
- 7million years ago –first human ancestors appear
- 2million years ago – Homo erectus appears
- 300,000 years ago – Homo sapiens evolves
- 50,000 years ago – Eurasia and Oceania colonised
- 40,000 years ago – Neandethal extinction
Eerie mammoth graveyard with HUNDREDS of bones belonging to 14-foot Ice Age beasts discovered
Most read in Science
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An unearthed stone slab dating back to the Bronze Age may represent Europe's oldest map.
And, a new study claims to finally provide some answers to why a 17th century bishop was buried with a foetus.
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