Woolly Mammoth Bones an Epic Fossil Find: Watch

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A southeast Michigan farmer accidentally discovered what researchers are calling an epic fossil discovery.

While digging to improve drainage on a soybean field near Chelsea, farmer James Bristle and his neighbor, Trent Satterthwaite, encountered what they first thought was a fence post, but further investigation showed the obstacle to be the rib bone of a prehistoric woolly mammoth, according to media reports..

University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology Professor Daniel Fisher a team of students immediately went to work to confirm the find and continue the dig.

The mammoth likely died between 11,000 and 15,000 years ago.

Bristle donated the mammoth skeletal remains to U-M.

“Well, the wife said we’re not hanging it over the mantle,” Bristle told the Ann Arbor News Monday. “And I don’t think there’s a buck pole big enough for it.”

Fisher said the mammoth was a significant find for Michigan, but just how important it is won’t be known until scientists have a chance to analyze the bones and other artifacts — which show ancient humans were in the area when the mammoth, a 40-year-old male, was buried.

The dig revealed rib bones, vertebrae, tusks, pelvic bones and a mostly intact skull — one of the more intact set of woolly mammoth bones ever found in the state, according to Fisher.

Found along with the partial skeleton were pieces of stone flaking tools used for cutting and three large boulders placed next to one another. Fisher and his team theorize the boulders were used as an anchor to keep the articulated neck vertebrae of the carcass contained in a pond, where it likely was placed for storage for consumption later.

Depending on the age of the bones, the discovery could tell scientists that ancient humans were in Michigan earlier than previously believed.

“If it turns out they were here will back in time, those will be things that make this more and more important,” Fisher said in a video posted on YouTube by the University of Michigan.

The discovery was also the stuff of kids’ dreams.

“It looked like a bent fence post, so I asked Jim if he’d buried a fence out there and he said, ‘no.’ So then I saw another piece that looked more like a bone and I asked him if he’d buried cattle out there and he said, ‘no,’ “ Satterthwaite told the Ann Arbor newspaper.

“Then it starts to hit you, and you know it’s every kid’s dream to dig up dinosaur bones or something like that.”

Though unusual, it’s not unheard of for people to unearth prehistoric remains.

“We get one or two calls like this a year,” Fisher told The Detroit News, “but most of them are mastodons.”

Bones of mastodons, another prehistoric creature, are more commonly found in Michigan. Over the years, Fisher estimates about 300 have been found, while skeletal remains of only about 30 mammoths have been recovered.

The elephant-like prehistoric creatures disappeared from North America around 11,700 years ago.