Fossil hunter finds 7-foot-long mammoth tusk sticking out of a creek in Mississippi

A fossil hunter made the biggest discovery of his life yet in Mississippi when he came across a Columbian mammoth tusk. The 7-foot-long Columbian mammoth tusk is the first to be found intact. Eddie Templeton spotted a fossil tusk completely exposed sitting above a stream in August.

Mammoth fossils are rare in Mississippi, so Templeton never thought that what he had found was from a mammoth. "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 told the Clarion Ledger.

The Columbian mammoth is a relative of the woolly mammoth and was not commonly found in Mississippi.

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“It didn’t occur to me it could be a mammoth tusk instead of a mastodon tusk until later,” said Templeton, who has discovered mastodon remains in the past, according to a statement from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

However, after the state’s survey paleontological team studied the tusk that was in "amazing condition", the reality was revealed. The team noted that the curvature of the tusk matched a Columbian mammoth more rather than the common mastodon.

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“This makes it an extremely rare find for Mississippi,” the department's statement said. “Most fossil tusk ivory found around the state are just fragments and most are likely to be attributable to the more common mastodon.”

Mammoth tusks are rare

Experts say that mammoth teeth are the only discoveries made in the region to date. George Phillips, palaeontologist with the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, told the publication that mammoth fossils, other than teeth, have never been found in the state before. “We’ve got plenty of mammoth teeth, so a tusk was bound to show up. It’s an impressive find.”

A part of the tusk was on top of the marine sediments of the Yazoo Formation. Experts say the mammoth likely died somewhere near the area and the remains were washed away by the stream.

To remove the tusk safely, it was wrapped in aluminum foil and a protective jacket was built using plaster and burlap strips.