CAPE CORAL, Fla -- Workers believe they found another mammoth bone on a Cape Coral construction area.
Lindsey Shipers showed 4 In Your Corner the suspected fossil. It measures about three feet long, and weighs several pounds. According to Shipers, her husband found the piece as he was digging in a construction area. She believes it's a tusk. "He was just digging with a machine and came across it," she said. "It's amazing. It's just something you don't find every day.
It was found in the same area a mammoth bone was found last month. Robert Carr, Executive Director and Archeologist at the Archeological and Historical Conservancy in Fort Lauderdale, tells 4 In Your Corner the newest discovery could be a mammoth bone from the same fossil bed. "It appears to be a fossilized bone or tusk. It's impossible to know without looking at it and analyzing it."
Although his guess is not conclusive, Carr says the fossil may be well over 11,000 years old.
So should we preserve this site and start digging for bone? Not exactly.
Carr says fossils are not as uncommon as the average person thinks. They are just uncommonly found because they are so deep underground, and people aren't normally digging deep holes outside of construction.
Carr says studying findings like these is important because it allows us to learn more about what the environment looked like in the past. "I think it is important. What they need to do on that construction site is they need to have an archeological monitor who is out there recovering and at least documenting these finds."
