Paleontologists in Cambridgeshire Have Discovered the Skull of an Extinct Buffalo that Lived 150,000 Years Ago

Sunday, January 20, 2019

YAKOV OSKANOV / SHUTTERSTOCK

Paleontologists have stumbled upon the 150,000-year-old skull of an extinct bison priscus, and this discovery marks the first time that a complete skull has been discovered at this particular Cambridgeshire quarry site.

Paleontologists in Cambridgeshire, England have recently discovered the skull of a prehistoric and extinct buffalo that roamed the Earth 150,000 years ago after unearthing the animal’s skull in a quarry.

As the Daily Mail reports, the surprising discovery was made by a fossil enthusiast who is a frequent visitor to the quarry, and despite finding hundreds of buffalo bones at this location, this fossilized skull is the first time that a complete skull has been discovered here.

It has been determined that the extinct bison priscus was 6.5 feet tall and weighed an enormous 2,000 pounds. Jamie Jordan, the man responsible for this unique discovery, runs Fossils Galore museum in Cambridgeshire, and has described the moment when he first stumbled upon the 150,000-year-old buffalo skull.

“As we were going through the quarry we saw some splintered pieces of bone on top of the surface, and I thought to myself, that’s a bit strange. I have mainly come across maybe one half of a skull at a time so it is very unusual to find everything together. I had a closer look and it turned out to be a horn cone from a buffalo and removed the loose horn core and there was still a large bone underneath.”

After further excavation, paleontologists discovered the other pieces of the buffalo’s skull and, as Jordan noted, despite having been thoroughly crushed, the Ice Age animal’s skull was nevertheless complete, even down to its massive jaws.

Once washed and weighed, the skull of this extinct buffalo was determined to be between 45 and 55 pounds, and Jordan now believes that other bones that were found at the Cambridgeshire quarry may have come from this same animal, and he intends to conduct further investigation to see if he can find other missing pieces of the bison priscon.

It is being reported that Jordan and his team were also the individuals who were responsible for the astonishing discovery of an Iguanodon skeleton that was found in a quarry in Surrey in 2017, and which had been buried at the site for around 132 million years.

The complete skull of the 150,000-year-old buffalo that was found in the Cambridgeshire quarry will be worked on over the next two months so that it will be perfectly preserved and will then be shown to the public, along with many of the other amazing finds of Jamie Jordan.

Source: www.inquisitr.com