During
the past several years Lonnie and Freida Looper of Greenville, Mississippi have collected
over 500 fossil bones of Ice Age animals which lived in the Mississippi Delta/Yazoo Basin between
10,000 and 2,000,000 years ago. They were often accompanied by their son, Zachary Horne, who
contributed many rare and exciting finds. These animals lived during the Rancholabrean
Epoch which gets its name from the famous "Tar pits" locality in Los Angeles,
California.The family found these treasures by walking gravel bars in the Mississippi River bed during seasonal low water levels. All of the fossils were recovered between river mile markers 499 (near the town of Glen Allen, Mississippi) and 639 (a point on a line with Sherard and Clarksdale, Mississippi). Native American artifacts including pottery, atl atl weights, and spearpoints are also present on the gravel bars as are 50 million year old Eocene shells, shark teeth and whale bones from the Jackson Group. For a map showing the Eocene coastline of the Gulf of Mexico click here.  It is a good bet, since many of these
Ice Age fossils are in such good condition, that they probably eroded from our loess. This
idea is also supported by the fact that these are mostly land animals. Similar fossils of this
age are occasionally found in loess deposits, almost always by accident, by people moving
earth, but amateur collectors can find mastodon teeth and other Ice Age animal remains by
walking the streams and ravines in loess country. For a map showing Fisk's theory of how
the Mississippi Delta/Yazoo Basin was formed and a geologic map of the state click here. Click on an image to view an enlargement. |
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