Tipton County yard yields fossil of mastodon-like species

By Mike Mueller
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Posted July 2, 2010

Jim Leyden's Brighton yard apparently was where prehistoric mastodons once roamed. The jawbone of one of the elephant forebears was found Wednesday as earth was being turd for a swimming pool.

When a crew digging ground for a swimming pool found the jawbone of an extinct beast in Jim Leyden's yard, the Tipton County homeowner confessed that he was disoriented.

"I grew up in New Jersey. I might find a body, but not a prehistoric animal," Leyden said of the discovery at his Brighton home.

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Roy Young, conservator at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, excavated the jawbone of the ancient mammal Wednesday afternoon.

The fossil is shaped like a wishbone, about 2 feet long on either side and 18 inches wide. One large tooth is still attached on the right side and another had broken off from the digging.

Fossils of mastodons -- forebears of the elephant -- previously have been found in the Mid-South, but Wednesday's discovery is a significant one, Young said. He believes the jawbone may have belonged to a close relative of the mastodon called a trilophodon, an animal which has never before been found in the Mid-South, he said.

"Over the years I've seen many a mastodon tooth and bits and pieces, but I've never seen this guy before," said Young, who has worked with fossils for 30 years. "He's an odd-looking fella."

The trilophodon had a long, pointed chin tipped with two short tusks, a short trunk and two larger tusks on the skull that curved down. The fossil found Wednesday belonged to an adult that Young estimates was 7 to 8 feet tall and 12 to 15 feet long and weighed between one and two tons.

A fossil of this animal has been found before in Texas but was not believed to have lived in the Mid-South area, according to Young.

Trilophodons were well distributed across North America 12 million to 20 million years ago before becoming progressively more rare, said Ross MacPhee, curator of vertebrate mammals for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Because of the depth of the jawbone in the earth, Young believes the fossil is no older than 2 million years and could be as young as 30,000 years, meaning Wednesday's discovery may change the history of these beasts.

Whether it is relatively young or not, MacPhee said the discovery is noteworthy.

"Fossils of large mammals tend to be quite rare for all geological periods," he said. "If it's that young, it would be cool. Depending on the species, it would be very scientifically significant."

Young said the fossil has been well preserved.

Leyden said he and his wife will likely donate the jawbone to the Pink Palace.

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