The Leyden home in Brighton, TN was the cause of much excitement recently when prehistoric fossils were unearthed during the installation of their new Pacific Graphex pool from Aloha Pools and Spas out of Memphis, TN, one of our very own Showcase builders.
Subcontractor Dave Mason of Affordable Pool Contractors unearthed the jawbone while digging 8 feet down to install the drain line for the new pool. Unaware at the time that the crack he heard when digging was actually the shovel hitting a little piece of tooth! The dig came to a halt and Mrs. Leyden phoned her husband Jim to give him the exciting news!
Roy Young, conservator at Memphis Pink Palace Museum was brought on the scene and later was able to extract a tooth still attached to the fossil. Experts think they are the bones of a prehistoric mammal, possibly a trilophodon, a member of the mastodon family, extinct predecessors of elephants.
One expert is estimating the fossils to be anywhere from 30,000 years old to 2 million years old. If the 2-foot-long wishbone shaped jawbone is indeed from a trilophodon, that would mark the first time fossils of this type were found in Tennessee and may possibly lead to more research in the area.
The Leyden family has enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame and planning to donate the fossils, possibly to the Memphis Pink Palace Museum. In the meantime they're looking forward to enjoying their new Pacific pool!
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