Have mammoth fossils really been hidden in the New York River for 80 years?

The story is reminiscent of a movie you would want to watch on a rainy Sunday. In New York, history enthusiasts and treasure hunters set out to find fossils who would have gotten lost in the East River.

“A Bone Rush”

It all starts with a podcast. Last November, actor Joe Rogan hosted John Reeves, a fan of fossiles d’Alaska. At the microphone, this one affirms that a car covered with bones of prehistoric mammoths would have been thrown into the river in the 1940s. The guest cites as evidence a report from the American Museum of Natural History referring to these lost fossils and bones.

The passion does not stop there. He announces to leave in search of these remains. “I’ll start a bone rush”did he declare. “We’ll see if anyone has a sense of adventure (…) Let me tell you something about mammoth bones and their tusks: they are extremely valuable.”

The story does not fall on deaf ears, or rather deaf ears. As the story goes New York Post, twenty explorers equipped themselves with boats, diving equipment and remote-controlled cameras in search of fossils. In vain.

A rumor born in the 1990s

Following the broadcast of the episode and the media frenzy surrounding this case, museum officials declared that the story was wrong.

According to John Reeves, the famous report was written in the mid-1990s by a former employee of the Museum of Natural History, an archaeologist and an anthropologist named Richard Osborne. Also according to the treasure seeker, the archaeologist would have told the Associated Press that the story of the abandoned bones came from the father of Richard Osborne. “He would have been informed by someone who would have told him thatthey dumped material in excess in the East River”shared John Reeves.

So what is it really? some bones found in Alaska are fine on display at the museum New Yorkers, but officials denied knowledge of any additional stock dumped in the river. In a press release, the museum even claims to have “could find no trace of this report in archives or other scientific sources”.

For the time being, several divers are not yet convinced by the statements of the museum. Asked by the New York Postsome, convinced of the existence of this treasure archaeological, say they are ready to return to the waters troubles de l’East River.

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