SAINT PETERSBURG, Fla. — Two St. Pete teachers made the discovery of a lifetime while diving in local Florida waters.
Admiral Farragut Academy teachers Rick Cochrane and Henry Sadler are not your average teachers.
Their classrooms display rare fossils they've found, and their latest find is one of their greatest.
The two are thrilled to have discovered a mastodon jaw and tusks from the ice age of Florida while diving in local waters.
The teachers said Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene, up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. They said Mastodon fossil remains are discovered periodically, but entire mandibles (jaws), especially tusks that are this complete, are extremely rare.
"We spend years looking for things like this, and many fossil hunters go their whole lives without so much as a glimpse of a mastodon tooth, let alone an entire jaw," said Sadler.
The discovery comes as the teachers were collecting fossil specimens to help launch a Paleontology club for students. While in the club, students will be able to stay after school to make their own discoveries from fossil-rich gravel.
"More importantly, I find the wow factor of such a large fossil to be so impactful to my students at Admiral Farragut Academy. When they walk into the classroom and see a jaw as big as they are, it stops them in their tracks for a few moments. Then the questions come pouring out.”
