Two Farmers, Two Different Sites of the World, Two Strange Objects Found Out at the Same Time

Two farmers, two different sites of the world, two strange objects found at the same time. A farmer's job may involve some digging, yet when these two farmers were doing their routine digging, they definitely did not expect to find this. From two different places across the world, two different farmers found clues from thousands of years in the past under the dirt. They didn't yet know how much their massive discoveries were connected. Nature hasn't yet shown us our wealth, and we believe many more things are still undiscovered. There are still many creatures in the world that have not been discovered and are unknown to the human eye. Jose Antonio Nieves woke up on Christmas morning in 2015 in his home in Argentina, just as he usually would. Feeling the Christmas spirit, he decided to take a walk across his ranch and reflect on the year. As he passed a stream that ran through his property, he noticed something highly unusual, a large, rounded stone sticking out from the bank of the stream. His curiosity was elevated and he went to examine the stone, but when he did, he discovered it wasn't actually a stone, but something completely different and unexpected. After approaching the bizarre, perfectly round object, Jose tried to remove the mud so he could get a closer look and maybe understand what exactly the stone was. When Jose was unable to clean the mud off this object, he called his wife Reina so that maybe she could help him figure out what the mysterious object was. Jose and his wife went to work and attempted to unearth and clean the object. They worked slowly and delicately, making sure they didn't damage it and luckily had all the proper tools to do so. As they continued to excavate, they realized the true size of it. Finally, after doing everything they could on their own, they decided they needed further assistance to figure out what the curious object was, so they called the police. While Jose and his wife only invited the police to see what the object was, somehow the whole city gathered around the stream to get a look at the unknown object. Neither the police nor the locals could figure out what it was. The police were baffled and couldn't come up with a logical explanation, but luckily a dog on the scene was able to give them their first clue. When Jose's dog joined the large crowd at the riverbank, it began to react, sniffing, barking, and gradually moving closer to the mysterious object. This reaction was the first sign this object was something important. Animals wouldn't be excited about natural objects like a plant or a stone. With the dog's reaction in mind, the police decided it was time to call in the experts, two local archaeologists. When they arrived, the two archaeologists concluded this huge object was something from another period and definitely quite ancient. They knew it required further scientific investigation, and that this could only happen in a lab, so these two archaeologists organized for the object to be transported so it could be properly tested. When the archaeologists tried to dig this unknown thing out, they realized this extremely heavy object was an egg made of hard material. It took so long to dig out because of its enormous size and was extremely difficult to transport to the lab. The archaeologists looked under the microscope and what they saw thrilled them. They realized that this is a kind of fossil, specifically an extremely large turtle shell. The craziest thing is this discovery was linked to another one that happened at the same time on the other side of the world. While this was going on in Argentina, farmer James Bristle in a small town in Michigan discovered an unknown prehistoric beast on his farm at the same time. These farmers didn't know each other, and they were definitely unaware of the coincidence that was going to bring them together. James was looking for the best place to place a natural gas line on his farm. He chose a barely used soy field on his property and began working. Natural gas line construction requires a lot of digging, however, James wasn't expecting to find this. James started digging for the natural gas line, and this required heavy-duty digging equipment, specifically a backhoe. He knew it would be a long process, but determined to finish it before October, before the snow. While using the backhoe, James hit something hard. The soy field was supposed to have soft and fertile soil without any large rocks or deep roots, so it was quite a surprise when the backhoe hit something so hard. Extremely curious, James got out of the machine to see what was there. He started to dig with only hands and felt something hard and smooth, but knew it definitely wasn't a stone or tree root. As James continued to dig through the soil and clean the mud off the object, he quickly realized he was holding a bone, but it was unlike any bone he'd ever seen. This bone looked like a rib bone, but much larger than any animal that would normally roam the area. It was so large there was no way it could belong to even a cow or horse. Curiosity overcame him, and he continued to dig for more clues. Meanwhile, back in Argentina, researchers finally discovered what the peculiar object from Jose's property was, and it was something amazing. Apparently, while on that lackadaisical walk around his property, Jose discovered a fossilized shell of a glyptodon, an armadillo-like animal which wandered the Earth amid the season of the dinosaurs. Back in Michigan, the excavation continued another day. To the astonishment of everyone, there was also a second bone that was also extremely long, much longer than the first. They were tunneling ten feet down into the ground, and what was once a standard trench for a natural gas pipeline was transformed into an archaeological site. The news was drumming up a buzz of enthusiasm across the town and even for major news outlets. Just like in the small Argentinian town, this small town in Michigan was abuzz with rumors and ideas of what these bones could be. One popular rumor was that it was a monster that had been buried there many years ago. Everybody was extremely confused when a considerable skull was revealed, with tusks as long as a man that was connected to it. How did an elephant end up ten feet under the Earth in the middle of Michigan? Not knowing how to deal with the amazing discovery, James reached out to University of Michigan Professor Daniel Fisher for help. Fisher was the director of the University of Michigan's Museum of Paleontology. The day after the phone call, Professor Fisher and a group of students eagerly showed up to the site, prepared for a thrilling day of digging. Daniel Fisher and his students were almost shaking from fervor as they discovered what these bones were and where they came from. They belonged to a woolly mammoth skull. The even more amazing part was that the remains were fully intact. Finding those remains in that superb condition is extremely rare, but the question that still remained was how to move them without damaging them. At last, they thought of a genuinely brilliant idea to move the bones without damage. Utilizing their excavator, they would use straps to gradually lift the skull from the ten-feet ditzy ditch and move it to a place where it could be properly cleaned and assessed. The crowd held their breath as they watched the skull being lifted and placed onto the flatbed of a truck. The attempt was nearly successful. While being put on the truck bed, one of the straps holding the skull suddenly snapped, and everyone let out a huge gasp. One of the tusks was mere inches away from crashing into the truck bed, but luckily the support of the other straps saved the bones. The skull was finally lowered down into the truck bed and taken off to the museum for further examination, but the biggest surprise had yet to be discovered. This whole situation was strange. Two farmers at two ends of the world at the same time find two large skeletons on their farms. How much of this was all coincidence? To truly understand the amazing situation, you must know the history behind both these incredible discoveries. Argentina is not the primary place that Glyptodon shells have been found. Over the past hundred years, they have been found on almost every continent. Remains of these curious animals have been found in countries like China, Australia, and even Antarctica, but what are they? Glyptodons were amazing creatures that had strong defensive capabilities, possibly the strongest out of any animal roaming the Earth at the time. Their shells were similar to tortoise shells, extremely tough and durable, and used as protection against predators. After further research, scientists discovered that Glyptodons existed at the same time as humans, and they hypothesized that it is humans that led to their eventual demise. While their shells were supposed to protect them, it made them targets for human hunters. A shell of that size filled in as a perfectly and easily accessible asylum in the case of severe weather. While it may seem like they predominantly resembled tortoises, the Glyptodon had more in common with an armadillo. Both were land-dwelling mammals, and both had bony coverings over their heads with long snouts. They originate from South America, but eventually emigrated to Guatemala. It's most likely this specific one had died or was stuck under heavy wreckage during a storm. Though the body is gone, the shell is still there after thousands of years. But what about the mammoth from Michigan? Investigations of the mammoth skull at the University of Michigan uncovered some genuinely exciting things. They were sorting through the parts of the tusks, and the bones were being dated so they could be in a museum. But how did this mammoth get there? It's presumed mammoths moved down to South America and disappeared around 11,700 years ago. This wasn't the only one that was discovered in Michigan. So far, 30 have been found. However, James' discovery is definitely the largest. During research, it was discovered the human hand had some influence over the skeleton. It's possible the mammoth was caught by a group of people at the time, hunted for its meat. As shocking as the mammoth bone discovery was, James had no real use for them. Because of this, he chose to give them to the school gallery, since they worked so hard on excavating and researching them. Despite the fact these discoveries were separated by a great distance, both of these fantastic revelations spoke to an opportunity to find out more about a past that remains largely unknown. Both Jose and James were simple farmers who stumbled upon the discovery of a lifetime and joined the ranks of the greatest archaeologists in the world. Start digging, and maybe one day you will too!