Mastodon tusk reveals evidence of bloody clash, mass grave of Iron Age frogs uncovered, 500-year-old skeletons found under Irish pub.
13,000-Year-Old Mastodon Tusk Found In Indiana Reveals His Turbulent Life And Bloody Death In A Mating Season Battle
Jeremy Marble/University of Michigan NewsScientists compare mastodon and elephant tusks to the rings inside tree trunks in that both can tell almost an entire life story, right down to a specific day.
Scientists compare the tusks of mastodons and elephants to the rings inside tree trunks in that both can tell almost an entire life story, right down to the day. Now, a study of the tusks belonging to the beloved Fred the mastodon that was found in Indiana in 1998 has unlocked his stormy tale like never before.
Analysis of strontium isotopes in Fred’s tusks revealed that he was returning to the same specific area of northeast Indiana each spring and summer after reaching adulthood — and sustaining vicious injuries, suggesting that this location was a mating ground where violent clashes between rival males routinely took place. And it was one especially grisly battle approximately 13,200 years ago that Fred finally met his gory end.
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Archaeologists Baffled By 8,000 Iron Age Frog Bones Found In A Ditch In England
Mike Kemp/In PIctures via Getty ImagesA common toad in England, possibly a descendant of the hundreds of Iron Age frogs found dead in Bar Hill.
Archaeologists dig up curious finds all the time. But a team from the Museum of London Archaeology made an especially peculiar discovery recently when they came across 8,000 frog bones in a ditch near an Iron Age roundhouse in Bar Hill, Cambridgeshire, England.
Dig deeper in this report.
500-Year-Old Skeletons Of Men Who Met A ‘Violent And Gruesome’ End Found Under A Demolished Irish Pub
Cork City CouncilThe men appear to have died during a turbulent period in Irish history.
For years, young people flocked to Nancy Spain’s pub in Cork, Ireland, at 48 Barrack Street, to drink and enjoy music. But the whole time, they were dancing atop bones. When the pub was demolished in 2021, archeologists came across centuries-old skeletons of six men who’d met “violent” ends as long as 500 years ago.
Read on here.
