In 1992, the fossilized skeleton of a mastodon was unearthed near San Diego. It was studied by paleontologist Richard Cerutti, and became known as the Cerutti Mastodon. The position and condition of the bones, the marks on them, and the rocks found near the bones show evidence that that mastodon was butchered by humans wielding sharpened rocks as knives. This was a shocking claim, since the fossil is dated to 130,000 years ago. The prevailing theory is that humans did not inhabit the Americas until 25,000 years ago at the earliest. Homo sapiens didn't venture out of Africa until less than 100,000 years ago. The research on the Cerutti Mastodon was dismissed or ignored for years. When other scientists studied the find and made the same claim years later, they were also roundly criticized.
So how do we explain the Cerutti Mastodon? Clearly, someone is wrong somewhere. Maybe the dating of the fossil is wrong. Maybe there is some other explanation for the cut marks and the shaped stones. Or maybe some species of humans were migrating to the Americas earlier than we previously thought. Read about the conundrum of the Cerutti Mastodon at Atlas Obscura. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Charles Robert Knight)