DISCOVERY! Mississippi man finds rare mammoth tusk, first in the state

Fossil finds are fascinating, especially when its one of a prehistoric mammal or dinosaur that has never been found before in a certain location. Last month, an amateur fossil hunter found a tusk to a Mammoth in a state one has never been seen before. Here's the story from the Clarion-Ledger:

( Photo: A Mammoth tusk is a giant discovery for Mississippi Jonathan Leard (orange shirt) of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Geology and Eddie Templeton of Madison look at the position of a mammoth tusk that Templeton recently found in a Madison County Creek.
 Credit:  Jonathan Leard/Special to The Clarion-Ledger )  

Mississippi man finds rare mammoth tusk, first in the state 

'It was huge. This was a big, big animal. This would have dwarfed a woolly mammoth.' 

Brian Broom, Mississippi Clarion Ledger, Aug 13, 2024

A Madison man was recently doing something he frequently does; walking along a creek looking for fossils and artifacts in Madison County. But this time he found something he never expected, a tusk from a giant mammoth and it's the first of its kind ever documented in the state.

"It was exciting," said Eddie Templeton. "I knew it was a tusk.

"It didn't occur to me it could be a mammoth tusk instead of a mastodon tusk until later. When I learned it was a mammoth and not a mastodon, I got even more excited. I've never found any part of a mammoth. I always hoped to find a part of a mammoth, but that's pretty rare down here."

Templeton has found many fossils including a petrified bone from a saber-toothed cat, more commonly called a saber-toothed tiger, so he knew what to do. He notified the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Geology and the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. 

"For Mississippi, this is a pretty substantial find," said James Starnes, MDEQ geologist. "It's pretty rare in general down here. The tusks don't preserve well."

So, finding any part of a tusk is rare, but coming from a mammoth makes it even more rare. Mastodons once roamed the state and their remains are much more common because they are similar to white-tailed deer in that they could live in a variety of habitats. Mammoths, on the other hand, were more specialized and needed open grasslands for feeding and had less suitable habitat than mastodons, so their numbers were fewer.

"This is not something you see every day," Starnes said. "This takes the cake when it comes to Ice Age fossils."

They were also massive. The tusk Templeton found came from a Columbian mammoth that lived between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, not the more famous, but smaller woolly mammoth. Columbian mammoths could grow up to 15 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh in excess of 10 tons. Woolly mammoths were about 9-10 feet tall at the shoulder as were mastodons according to the National Park Service.

"It was huge," Starnes said. "This was a big, big animal. This would have dwarfed a woolly mammoth."

In fact, it would have dwarfed anything else that lived on land in the state. Starnes said it's the largest known mammal to ever walk in Mississippi.

(Photo: George Phillips, paleontologist with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, said the Columbian mammoth tusk that was recently found in Mississippi is the first officially documented in the state. Credit: Clarion Ledger) 

What happens to the mammoth tusk next? 

Templeton, Starnes and Jonathan Leard, also of MDEQ, excavated the tusk and built a plaster jacket around it for protection. It was then taken to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science and turned over to paleontologist George Phillips.

Phillips said it's the first Columbian mammoth tusk ever officially documented in the state. He said it was just a matter of time before one was found.

"We've got plenty of mammoth teeth, so a tusk was bound to show up," Phillips said. "It's an impressive find. We knew one would show up sooner or later."

Phillips said the tusk will be allowed to dry and then preserved by infusing a special type of glue into it. He also said that while it's a very important find, it's anybody's guess as to when it will go on display for the public to view because it's a slow process. "Everybody wants to know that," Phillips said. "Right now, we're focusing on other exhibits."