Ongoing drought alongside the Mississippi River has revealed a number of beforehand sunken treasures, a listing that now features a jaw fragment from an historical lion species that went extinct 1000’s of years in the past.

Wiley Prewitt, a resident of Oxford, Mississippi, was exploring an uncovered sandbar close to Rosedale on the finish of October. He stumbled throughout black tooth within the sand.

“I could tell from the teeth right away that it was a fragment of a carnivore’s jaw but I dared not hope it was from an American lion,” Prewitt said to The Sun Herald. “It certainly looked right but I wouldn’t let myself believe it.”

On October 29, Prewitt went to the Mississippi Fossil and Artifact Symposium & Exhibition to ask consultants about his findings, The Sun Herald reports. Event organizers confirmed that this was the jaw of an American lion.

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Prewitt’s discovery has excited fossil lovers. There are solely three different recognized fossils from these ice age lions to come back from Mississippi, based on The Sun Herald. Remains from different historical predators usually tend to be present in states out West. The American lion went extinct about 11,000 years ago; researchers consider these lions weighed between 500 to 800 kilos and lived in North America for about 340,000 years.

“There’s arguments among scientists about it, but I think that it is because of activity impacts—particularly hunting,” Kate Lyons, a paleoecologist on the University of Nebraska, advised Earther throughout a name. Previous analysis suggests that people hunted many massive mammals to extinction over the last ice age—which can be why we now not stroll the planet with giant sloths or mammoths.

Lyons defined that these large cats have been bigger, heavier historical family members of the trendy African lion. Finding a fossil like that is uncommon, Lyons mentioned, as a result of predators aren’t as plentiful in landscapes in comparison with different mammals.

“It’s not unheard of that you would find fragments for each of these extinct mammals, but the apex predators like American lions are gonna be more rare,” she mentioned. “Big cats are just cool. So anytime you find a fossil of a big cat, I’m going to fangirl over it.”

Lyons mentioned that anybody who finds mammal bones or fossils alongside dried-up elements of the Mississippi River ought to take the merchandise to an area museum. Museums are sometimes geared up to evaluate fossils and make contact with related the researchers. “If [the fossil] feels delicate, you should be careful that you don’t break it. But typically they’re pretty robust, because what makes it into the fossil record of mammals are the hard parts that are left,” she mentioned.

This yr, low water ranges round Baton Rouge additionally revealed a sunken picket ship that will have been constructed within the late 1800s, CNN reported. The ship is believed to have sunk in 1915 after it was broken in a storm.

The drought could also be turning up some thrilling finds, nevertheless it has disrupted transport throughout a number of states. Cruise ships have needed to change their schedules, and barges have run aground alongside the river. Barges have needed to carry 20% much less cargo to make up for the decrease water ranges.

Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the nation is in for one more dry winter. Climate change has intensified dry situations: Earlier this yr, researchers attributed 42% of the nation’s drought situations to human-caused local weather change.