I'm just telling you guys now today's video is a wild one over many years of fossil hunting
I have found handfuls of Megalodon teeth mastodon teeth as big as my head and even giant ground
sloth claws but on today's adventure I uncovered what may be the rarest Ice Age fossil that
I have ever found and if you want to see how I found it we first need to head to my office
[Music] well we've managed to get safely downriver it is a beautiful day and I have three full
tanks and at least eight to nine hours that I can be diving and with that much time and
good conditions I don't doubt that once we get underwater we're gonna start finding some
really cool stuff but the only way to ever find out is to actually put in the work put
in the time and get a little bit dirty and gross we are loaded down pretty heavy today
because the current is especially strong in this location but I've got this this will
help me stay on the bottom and we're gonna work our way up this exposure see what's on
the surface and after that we'll do some Fanning and see if we can't uncover anything that's
buried but for me right now all I need to do is get underwater
it did not take long before we started finding our first Megalodon teeth and when you're
finding them right off the bat like this it typically means that you're gonna have a pretty
good day because where you find one Megalodon tooth there are hundreds in hiding
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well that's the first nice meg today I just safely tucked it away and we're gonna get
back into the deep now this spot is pretty unique in that you also find really high quality
Ice Age fossils so the hard bottom that the river is eroding are miocene sediments which
contain the ancient shark teeth with everything above that formation are Ice Age sediments
that contain unique fossils like this camel tooth it is hard work crawling on the river
bottom like this but to me it's worth it when every few feet you're picking up ancient shark
teeth like this little guy you could barely see it peeking out it's more obvious than
a lot of the ones we find but every single one is cool to pick up and I think the next
tooth is going to be even better
and I'm telling you these teeth just keep on coming
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okay I had to get out of the water and make sure that this crazy beautiful tooth got to
the boat it came straight from the clay and that's why it's so well preserved this beater
was about I don't know six feet in front of it looked good before I picked it up but it's
a nice size but definitely a beater really really cool but now I am pretty excited to
get back underwater that thing is awesome here we go again
the incredibly important tools I use to discover these fossils are the big blue dive lights
if you want to get your own lights from them you can get 10% off Linked In the description
below by using the code "digging science" [Music] when it comes to Fossil hunting I
typically prefer quality over quantity which is why I was so happy with what I'm finding
these teeth still have a razor sharp serrations and the next tooth that I found is probably
the best lesser white shark tooth that I have ever found
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we've got three really nice teeth but this tank is dry it's time to swap them out again
there they are three more really nice teeth from the last part of that dive really happy
with that Mako though that's an extinct white shark the Lesser white they're not really
makos but this is the shark that evolved into the great white and it's as big as these juvenile
meg teeth really really cool I got my tank swapped and I'm ready to get back underwater
so I get asked in almost every single video where I'm finding megalodon teeth in a River
how could there possibly be these giant shark teeth in a small River like this and the easiest
explanation is that this wasn't always a river 2.6 to 12 million years ago this area was
completely submerged underwater in fact it was a nursery where large megalodons would
come have babies and those babies would be in a safer area to grow up and compete for
resources which is why in Central Florida south Florida the teeth are typically smaller
than you would find in say Georgia or South Carolina which is more of a hunting ground
for these giant sharks oh yeah remember how I said there are Ice Age fossils here as well
well get ready to see a very very cool one foreign
[Music]
let's get this to the boat wow wow
freaking Mammoth tooth look at that absolutely perfect this wear right here this weird little
indent is him with a tooth behind this one was pressing into it this thing is perfect
beautiful color every single plate is there I really don't want to handle it too much
in case I might damage it you can tell it's really delicate with some of the pieces down
here but when I was in there near it we were also finding pieces that I didn't show on
camera but these are giant chunks of ivory real Ivory and based off the cross hatching
I'm pretty sure that this is Mastodon so there might be a mastodon tusk there or even mastodon
teeth that was without a doubt a pretty awesome dive we're changing out batteries right now
in my dive helmet and with the tanks we're changing those out and we're gonna get back
underwater there's a lot more time traveling we can do today and I know I've got another
40 yards maybe of really really really good material and I'm ready to find some cool stuff
that there's more in there now as cool as that Mammoth tooth was it is not nearly as
rare and interesting as one of the Ice Age teeth, well technically found two so stick
around for that two Ice Age teeth that we find
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okay okay
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we need to get that back to the boat that is ice age Predator remains holy crap holy
crap holy crap is that what I think it is that's definitely Predator that's definitely
something really really really rare and unique I'm thinking maybe let's get the look on that
a bit better I'm thinking maybe an incisor but if that's an incisor that thing is absolutely
huge it'd have to be Smilodon or saber-toothed cat like that would be ridiculously rare maybe
it's a lower canine to a cat too I don't know but that is unique like unique enough where
I have never found anything like this before as cool as all of these shark teeth that we
were finding this absolutely Takes the Cake you do not find Ice Age Predator material
that often for every one of these I'll find hundreds of Megalodon teeth like these it's
not even a competition these things are way out of That League well the moon's out and
it's getting dark so I think my day is officially over but I still have a ton of cool stuff
to show you but it's all gonna have to wait I decided for my next hunt that I would go
looking specifically for Ice Age fossils in a spot that is only accessible on foot I'm
already missing the Safety and Security of the boat so the plan for today is to take
it slow
this was a Bittersweet hunt for me because we would end up losing all of my dive lights
and both my GoPros big blue would end up replacing all the lights that I lost and if you're interested
in getting your own big blue dive lights you can check out their Link in the description
below to get 10% off we really can't thank them enough but more on them in the next video
right now we want to talk about the incredible fossil that we did find that ended up saving
the trip and then we have this definitely an extinct Predator canine I gotta figure
out what species it almost looks like another saber cat lower canine or maybe like one of
the big bear incisors but it's got this little Edge right here which makes me think let's
see if we get closer yeah see this little Edge that makes you think this was on the
side of the jaw so probably a lower canine to a big extinct species if we don't find
anything else today that's a trip maker I'm really excited to figure out what that species
is if it's another saber cat canine I mean lightning can strike twice right all right
that might have been a little bit of a jarring transition but we have figured out what those
two teeth are and we are heading to the Brevard Museum of Natural History and Science in Florida
to compare these to a life-size replica of this incredibly unique animal so we're about
to get past Jacksonville and I've got my little family unit with me and I think it's about
time I keep trying to say
Montage Montage time [Music] Nalie we're almost there you ready we're gonna go see some fossils
and go on a walk baby I see it it's over there as James would say oh we're gonna see him
in just a second I see their car let's go what's up fam you guys ready to look at some
rocks where's ya oh cool all right I don't like dolls they scare me this is my digging
science camera crew look at that the camera's as big as your face oh I see a professional
in the future right there for sure go go go go go go go go go go the Brevard museum is
a small Museum outside of Cocoa Beach where we have had fossils on loan for over five
years we wanted to come to this Museum specifically because we have a life-sized replica of the
animal we believe that we found and we want all of you to visit for yourselves so you
can check out some of the very Ice Age fossils that we ourselves have found when you think
of the Ice Age typically people think about the big animals the impressive Mastodon the
formidable giant ground sloth but really the Holy Grail at least to me of fossil collecting
in Florida are the predators like this Smilodon and this is what I believe we found now the
most obvious feature about this animal are its gigantic Sabers now surprisingly that's
not actually that uncommon of a feature in these extinct animals the first animal that
had Sabers like this were the gorgonopsians 250 million years ago they were early synapsids
which mammals are as well but they more were like a cross between a mammal and a reptile
while being neither having gigantic Sabers like that comes with a few problems the first
is that you don't have a lot of space in that lower jaw and because there's not a lot of
space in the lower jaw smilodon canines from the lower jaw at least are actually much smaller
than other big cats like the extinct jaguar or American lion and honestly that was the
biggest clue telling us that these teeth were from a Smilodon also I gotta say I'm wearing
my trilobite me shirt it's Valentine's Day while I'm recording this so I had to wear
it back to the museum now our teeth are going to be the teeth that are highlighted right
now in yellow we've got the lower jaw canine and then it's either this lower incisor this
primary incisor up here or the primary incisor next to the saber now we would have loved
to have found the saber instead they evolved for the kill strike on the jugular of these
large Ice Age animals and that specialized nature that incredibly special tool is what
actually led to these animals being vulnerable to Extinction now smilodons are the most famous
of the saber cats and probably the most successful when the isthmus of Panama connected North
America to South America there was another saber cat that evolved not cat big difference
saber marsupial that evolved Sabers through convergent evolution it's a beneficiary adaptation
so it evolved there as well but the smilodons were more successful and out-competed the
thylacosmilus
now Smilodon eventually would meet its end though because of its specialized tool when
these Ice Age animals these giant animals went extinct at the end of the last glacial
maximum about 13 000 years ago this guy had nothing else to hunt without large animals
like that these canines were basically useless and now you can only see them in museums or
if you're lucky like I was to find them in the bottom of a river we're not completely
over with this story I still need to report and document these two really cool finds to
the State of Florida with my permit to the Florida museum of natural history if fossil
hunting is something you want to do you're going to need to get a permit to the Florida
museum of natural history and once it's reported if the state isn't interested in it it might
end up in a museum like this maybe even this one and it will share a home with other fossils
that I found so these are Mammoth teeth Mastodon Teeth and jaws that I've found and I've loaned
here and I think it's really cool that this can be another way I share Natural History
not just through the YouTube channel but physically you guys like that you guys like that all
right fist bump Jonathan can remember doing stuff off the top of his head how many takes
was that first yeah First Take and because I was such a good first take what should people
do that watch this video
like like and subscribe and and hit the bell notifications
we're climbing guys I don't think that's what it ate that's pretty big oh hi Naliereally
wants to be on Digging science you want to tell
them about this thing oh my goodness so excited
courtesy of John the Valentine yeah
Pioneers used to ride these bad boys from miles did you know that
we have to do outtakes we have to do credits with my camera people we got Jakey James did
you do any work you said some stuff that is soda okay how about you Nalie did
you do any work yes I did