Divers hunting for missing woolly bones in New York City’s East River have finally made a discovery – they have found what is believed to be the jawbone of a long-lost bison.
Crews have been scouring the river after reports that the American Museum of History dumped thousands of skeletons there in the 1940s when it ran out of storage. If recovered, the bones could be worth thousands.
Over the weekend, a team led by Don Gann, 35, and Christopher Ogden came out of the water with their first discovery – the bones of an animal that disappeared about 10,000 years ago.
Although not a drive or a bone from an actual mammoth, the discovery of a 10-inch prehistoric jawbone — if confirmed — could confirm claims about a bone dump, which the museum has denied.
Steppe bison lived alongside wooly mammoths thousands of years ago in the Alaskan region where the bones are said to have been dumped.
Christopher Ogden carries what is believed to be a bison jaw bone
The remains of a jawbone that may have belonged to a steppe bison measured ten inches long
The investigation began in late December after gold miner turned bone hunter John Reeves appeared on a Joe Rogan video to say he wanted to shoot a ‘lame bone,’ and described the site as a collection of mammoth tusks. being at the bottom. East River.
Reeves read from a draft report from the Fairbanks Alaska Mining District, which detailed the transportation of thousands of tux from Fairbanks bound for the natural history museum over the past four decades.
“They took 500,000 or more bones from Fairbanks to New York City, they left them in the boxes … they took about one box of these bones and they ran out and threw them in the East River,” he said.
The report stated that 100,000 of the bones were sent directly to the museum, and were eventually dumped at East Main Street and 65th Street.
“If any of you want to go out and find some bones I’ll tell you exactly where the f*** they are,” Reeves said as he described the scene. ‘They are the guards.’
Wooly mammoth Tusks can go for around $20,000 each depending on their condition.
“You have to remember this was in 1928 to 1958,” Reeves told Rogan. ‘People, you know the miners, they don’t collect bones.’
According to the report on the case, there was a ‘mistake’ on the ‘acceptance status’ of the bones sent to New York.
Divers Don Gann (left), Stephen Cortes (center) and Christopher Ogden (right) hold the bone
The Steppe Bison lived alongside the woolly mammoth and died out about 10,000 years ago.
Bones of the steppe bison. The animals live in the area where the mammoth bones are said to have been dumped
The museum said it had no records of where the bones were disposed of, or a report it said.
“We have no record of the disposal of these fossils in the Middle East, nor have we been able to find any record of this in the archives or other scientific sources,” the museum said in a statement. statement, according to the museum. New York Post.
However, groups such as Gann went to the river to try their luck.
Gann, who starred in the first episode of Discovery’s ‘Sewer Divers’ program, said he was not surprised by the revelations given that he and his friends had found all kinds of old property and even human bodies at the bottom of the East River.
Although he was pleased with the discovery of the mammoth fossils, which would fetch up to $20,000 each, he cautioned that the discovery could go away quickly as more people come out to check the water.
“I think somebody’s going to find something soon, and it’s going to cause quite a stir and it’s going to have a lot of people here,” Gann said. “It will snowball from there and it will end when someone is killed or injured”
‘And at this point, the officials will cover the whole thing.’
Gann, who has nine years of experience in diving, said he always finds things in the East River, from cannonballs to copper to quartz. He said he found three bodies while diving there, while Cortes found eight.
“We got a truck down there today,” he said in January. ‘You really get all kinds of stuff down there.
A possible steppe bison jawbone found in the East River
Wooly bone expert John Reeves said it was a ‘mistake’ to dump the bones on the East River near 65th Street.
Although he said that the prospect of seeking the right will be happy, he warned those who want it that the trip will be more than what they bargained for if they are not properly equipped.
Since they are all pros, Gann said his boat is properly equipped to allow his team to stay safe and warm as they explore the bottom of the East River.
‘I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone,’ he said. ‘Especially diving with only wetsuits. You need the right tools.’
He added that the competition will be the first to find the suspected fish in the river, and if his team finds it, it will make Gan famous.
He is the subject of the first episode of ‘Sewer Divers,’ which premiered this Sunday as the filmmakers follow the lives of those who have explored sewer systems for centuries across the country.
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