A hybrid creature between 2 beasts 'hiding' on the seabed for 200,000 years

According to Science Alert, a team of scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute discovered the massive tusk in 2019 while exploring an underwater mountain 3,000 meters high. Although there have been fossils of ancient giant beasts found under the sea before, such a thing "hiding" on the ocean floor so deep is very confusing.

The first images of the beast's tusk on the seabed - Photo: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Dr. Daniel Fisher from the University of Michigan (USA), a member of the research team, said that the mammoth probably lived between 200,000 and 2.7 million years ago. However, the results of the assessment only give a vague number that the specimen is at least 100,000 million years old.

The discovery is thought to be a sign that this deep sea may contain many other interesting paleontological fossils.

The tusk was only a short broken piece, but was already 1 meter long. Excavation of it took months and took place in a self-propelled vehicle with a robotic arm. The most special thing is that thanks to being preserved by salty sea water in a quiet and extremely cold depths (about 4 degrees Celsius), the tusk has provided paleontologists with an excellent DNA sample.

It is a "Columbian mammoth", a cross between a famous woolly mammoth and another unknown species of mammoth. Any specimen of the Columbian mammoth is therefore intriguing because it could provide additional data about the second "ghost" that made it up.