James Bristle and a friend were digging in a soybean field on his southern farm when they found something that has the scientific community talking. What appeared to be a “bent fence post covered in mud” turned out to be a fragment of the pelvis of an ancient wooly mammoth. “When my five-year-old grandson came over and saw the pelvis, he just stood there with his jaw wide open and stared. He was in awe,” Bristle said.
Bristle promptly notified the nearby University of Michigan, which sent out a team of paleontologists to the location. As they dug into the earth, the enormity of Bristle’s finding became apparent. Apart from the pelvis, the scientists dug up a skull complete with two giant tusks, vertebrae, ribs, and both shoulder blades.
The enormous creature is thought to have met his fate thousands of years ago. “We think that humans were here and may have butchered and stashed the meat so that they could come back later for it,” Daniel Fisher, the scientist who was the leader of the dig, said on Friday. Remains of 30 additional mammoths have been discovered in Michigan, but Bristol’s finding is the most complete so far. The mysteries our world keeps revealing is astounding.