Some of the best discoveries are made by accident and chances are the woolly mammoth tooth discovered accidentally by a 12-year-old boy on vacation is a memento he won’t soon forget.
Jackson Hepner was visiting The Inn at Honey Run in Millersburg, Ohio with his family earlier this summer when he stumbled on an incredible discovery. Jackson was playing in a creek when he found an odd, ridged object sticking out of the mud. With his family’s help and some Googling they realized that they might have a woolly mammoth or mastodon tooth on their hands.
Boy stumbles across woolly mammoth tooth while playing around in a creek bed in Ohio https://t.co/WlHEdJMkm7 pic.twitter.com/N9aecSo77L
— KTLA (@KTLA) August 14, 2019
Jackson’s family together with the inn’s owners reached out to several local professors to check out their finding. P. Nick Kardulias of the College of Wooster’s Program of Archeology inspected the item along with Jackson’s description of where it was found and confirmed that it is likely the tooth of a woolly mammoth. Both woolly mammoth and mastodon fossils have been discovered throughout the state.
Like any great discovery, the best part is sharing it with others. In his note to the experts Jackson wrote, “I would like to have my tooth back in my hands as soon as possible. I want to show my friends.”
—Shahrzad Warkentin
Feature photo: The Inn At Honey Run via Instagram
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