American Drought Reveals Fossil of Lion Extinct 11,000 Years Ago

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The famous Mississippi River did not escape the drought that hit America during the American summer. The falling water actually allowed a man named Wiley Prewitt to find something rare in the empty basin.

While walking near Rosedale, a small town on the Mississippi-Arkansas border, Prewitt saw a black spike sticking out of the waterway. He took the towel Paleontologists Participants in a symposium in the region confirmed: The fossil represents an American lion (Panthera Atrox🇧🇷 Extinct 11,000 years ago🇧🇷

It is a tooth attached to a part of an animal’s jaw. These big cats first appeared in North America at least 340,000 years ago, but evidence of them is very rare in the eastern United States. This is the fourth specimen of the species ever found in Mississippi.

The American lion is 25% larger than the African lion. The animal can reach a height of about 1.5 meters and a length of 1.8 meters. Scientists estimate that the largest members of this species have reached a weight of 450 kilograms.

There are still doubts about the origin of the animal. For example, researchers can’t say whether an African lion has a mane because fur and fur are rarely preserved in the fossil record.

Prewitt has not yet announced whether he wants to keep the find or donate it to a museum. For now, scientists are rooting for the second hypothesis, which would allow a deeper study of the tooth.