Clarion-Ledger reported that Red Antler Processing owner Shane Smith discovered two prehistoric artifacts while examining the stomach contents of a 750-pound Mississippi alligator that was brought to his wild game processing and hunting store on September 2. Smith shared photos of an arrowhead-like object and a tear-shaped object that he discovered while processing the 13-foot, 5-inch alligator from Eagle Lake on Facebook.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s James Starnes reviewed a photograph of the arrowhead-like object and determined it was an atlatl dart point, an early weapon from 5,000-6,000 BC. According to The Clarion-Ledger, Starnes also identified the second object as a plummet, a heavy stone made of hematite about 1,700 BC, although archaeologists do not know what it was used for.
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‘Scientists have long believed that, like birds, gators swallow stones to aid digestion of difficult-to-process food, or accidentally swallow them when consuming a live, thrashing prey,’ Science Magazine reported, adding that the strategy could also maximize the creatures’ time underwater.
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