Sunday, July 04, 2010

Dinosaur : "Prehistoric Fossil Found In Tennessee Backyard"

Jim Leyden was waiting for word on the installation of his new backyard pool when he received a startling phone call.
"My wife called and said , you're not going to believe it...They found a dinosaur," Leyden told Memphis WMC-TV.
In fact, while digging 8 feet beneath Leyden's Brighton, Tennessee, Backyard on June 30, contractors discovered the bones of a prehistoric mammal, possibly a triophodon, part of the mastodon family. Mastodons are extinct relatives of today's elephants.
Leyden said he was shocked to learned that fossils, which one expert says could be anywhere from 30,000- years-old to 2 million -years old, were buried on his property.
"I grew up in New Jersey. I might find a body, but not a prehistoric animal," Leyden told the Commerical Appeal.
David Mason of Affordable Pool Contractors unearthed the jawbone while installing a drain line for the Leyden's new pool. " I dug into the dirt and something cracked," Mason told WMC-TV. He didn't know it at the time, but he had hit "a little piece of tooth."
Roy Young, conservator at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, later excavated the bones of the ancient beast, finding a large tooth still attached on the right side of the wishbone-shaped fossil. Another tooth had cracked off during the digging for the pool.
Young believes the jawbone is from a triophodon, which would mark the first time the animal was discovered in the mid-south.
"Over the years I've seen many a mastodon tooth and bits and pieces, but I've never seen this guy before," Young told the Commerical Appeal."He's an odd looking fella."
Young estimated that the bones belonged to an adult who stood up to eight (8) feet tall and weighed as much as two (2) tons.
"What am I going to do with it ?" he said to WMC-TV. "If I keep it around, my wife would throw me out." Leyden said he planned to donate the fossil to the Pink Palace Museum.
My spin: What a wonderful find and there's more out there .'Wake up folks'; don't you want to save your planet?  Don't you  believe  we should work on Global Warming/Climate Change ? We have a lot more to learn about Mother Earth. She is gradually giving up her secrets but she still has a great deal more wisdom to impart to us. Join us in spreading the word.

1 comment:

  1. I wish I could find a dinosaur in my yard. What a hoot.It is always good to donate them to science.

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