A 9 - yr - old boy quite literally stumbled across a fresh paleontological find when he trip out over a giant skull while hiking in Las Cruces , New Mexico in November 2016 . AsThe NewYork Timesreports , the fossilized bones have been identified as the million - yr - old remains of a Stegomastodon , a long - extinct distant relative of the New elephant .
It all start with a game of chase : Jude Sparks , now 10 , was running from his younger blood brother when he tumbled look - first over what appear to be a giant tusk . " My face landed next to the bottom jaw , " SparkstoldABC news affiliate KVIA - TV . " I look farther up and there was another tusk . "
Sparks ’s parents thought it looked like an elephant skull ; his brother , a moo-cow skull . As for Jude himself , he eyed the oddly shaped bone , and " just knew it was not something that you usually find , " he subsequently told theTimes .
The Sparks did n’t dig up up the bones , but they did take a cubicle phone picture . Later , they compare the shot to elephant skull , but they were n’t 100 percent identical . So to solve the mystery story once and for all , the category sought the opinion of Peter Houde , a biology prof at New Mexico State University .
Houde instantly know the skull as that of a Stegomastodon , a animal that belonged to the animal kinfolk Gomphotheres and is a distant cousin of ancient mammoths and modern elephants . Stegomastodons roamed the Earth in the preceding few million years , and may have been hunt by other man . This exceptional specimen is at least 1.2 million years sometime . Theories for theStegomastodon ’s extinction let in mood alteration or the arrival of mammoths , which may have guide to a contest for food resources , according toNational Geographic .
gigantic fogy are relatively common across the westerly portion of North America , but only a couple hundred Stegomastadons have been retrieve throughout the world . The Sparks had serendipity on their side , as they visited the site mightily after heavy rain had exposed the Stegomastodon skull .
Together , Houde and the Sparks family reburied the skull and try permission from the property owner to excavate the uncovering . Once they receive a squad , a Trachinotus falcatus , and financial backing , they got to work and dug up the skull in May .
" All of the protein is gone from these dodo , and the os is very , very brickly and tenuous , " Houde told KVIA . " And as presently as the sediment is taken out from around it , it just falls apart all on its own . So we have to use preservatives to stabilize it before we withdraw the sediment around it . And then build sticking plaster and wooden casing around it to remove it safely . It ’s a big job . "
The Stegomastodon will likely go on show at New Mexico State University , providing bookman , mental faculty , and visitors likewise with an up - tight opinion of the uncommon fossil .
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
