Fossil collector finds mammoth tusk in Madison County

The Mississippi State Geological Survey scientists got word about a major fossil discovery made by Eddie Templeton, an avid artifact and fossil collector and friend of the Survey.

Templeton was exploring in rural Madison County in early August looking for fossils when he stumbled upon what appeared to be a portion of an ice-age elephant tusk exposed in a steep embankment.  

Mississippi was home to three elephant-like animals during the last ice age: Mastodon, Gomphothere, and the Columbian mammoth.  All three possessed ivory tusks. Mastodons are by far the most common in Mississippi as they were browsers, like modern deer, and inhabited a variety of different environments. 

Templeton knew that acting quickly on the significant find was important. From both his and our Survey Geologist’s experience that just the heat of afternoon summer sun alone could dry a specimen like this out, destroying it, and it could be lost forever. The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science was also ready to respond to help by providing the material resources to our team to properly excavate and stabilize the find for removal of the important fossil. 

When Templeton and the State Survey paleontological team arrived to the fossil site, they found the fossil tusk in amazing condition and was only partially exposed just above the water under a bluff in the alluvium of a small drainage. It was suspected based on the strong curvature of the massive tusk that Templeton and the team were dealing with a Columbian mammoth and not that of the more common mastodon. This would be the first of its kind for the area. 

Templeton carefully removed the clayey sand by hand from around the tusk to expose the 7 foot long fossil it in its entirety — an extremely rare find for Mississippi. Most fossil tusk ivory found around the state are just fragments and most are likely to be attributable to the more common mastodon. 

Once photographed in place, it was prepared for plaster jacketing by covering it with aluminum foil while the team began mixing plaster and cutting strips of burlap. The burlap strips were soaked in the wet plaster and placed over the foil covered fossil tusk. This was done to construct a protective jacket to encase the giant fossil for stabilization and careful removal. 

The fossil tusk was confirmed by the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science paleontologist as indeed belonging to a Mammoth. Templeton’s discovery offers a rare window into the Columbian mammoths that once roamed Madison County along the Jackson Prairie of central Mississippi.

Columbian mammoths were much larger than the infamous woolly mammoth that roamed the colder, more northern regions of North America. They grew up to 15 feet at the shoulder and could weigh over 10 tons.