Bone of the lower jaw of a tapir found in the place, which can represent a new species.
A prehistoric cemetery was discovered on the Steinhatchee River in Florida. A team of divers found more than 500 fossils from an obscure ice age period. The treasure contained fossils of giant armadillos, old horses and possibly a new species.
More than 500 fossils over 500,000 years old were found a submerged prehistoric cemetery on the Steinhatchee River in the US.
The place was full of exceptionally well -preserved bones of old mammals, including horses, giant armadillos, laziness and possibly a new species of tapir.
About 500,000 years ago, before the river passed over the scene, a sink in the region of Big Bend, Florida, which became a Deadly trap for hundreds of animals.
Over time, the sediments were filled with the sink, burying their remains in “Almost Immaculate Conditions”as the archaeologists described, cited by.
These fossils remained hidden until 2022, when Robert Sinibaldi e Joseph They discovered them during a routine dive expedition in the turned waters of the Steinhatchee River.
In a study recently in Fossil Studiesarchaeologists confirmed that fossils are from the age of the terrestrial mammals of North America Irvingtonian (1.6 million-250,000 years ago-a period of evolutionary transition with a scarce fossil registration), among which was a fossil of a species, apparently, Never seen before.
But what kind is this?
The intriguing fossil found on site is the skull of a Antiga Anta: A mammal in Pork form with a short trunk similar to that of an elephant.
Interestingly, the skull had many characteristics never before seen In the fossil record, which led investigators to consider the possibility of the specimen to belong to a previously unknown species.
However, Richard HulbertThe study leader warned that, for now, it is wrong to conclude that this is a new species.
“We need more of the skeleton to realize what is going on with this tapir. It can be a new species. Or It can be just the strangest individual Of the normal population, ”he said in a released last week.
The same statement released by the Florida Natural History Museum states that, among the 552 recovered fossils, about 75% belong to a primitive species of horses – The subgroup that includes modern domestic horses.
Horse teeth were precisely the best preserved fossils in the sink: “For the first time we had individuals complete enough to show us the upper teeth, the lower teeth and the frontal incisors of the same individual,” Richard Hulbert said.
