2 Sisters Discover Centuries-Old Bear Skull While Kayaking

Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism / Facebook

Flooding is devastating for any area, but it can also bring about cool discoveries that were previously hidden underground.

According to KSAL, Sisters Ashley and Erin Wyatt were kayaking down the Arkansas River in South Central Kansas when they noticed something odd jutting out of a sandbar. Intrigued by the strange shape of the protrusion, the sisters pulled the object out of the sand. They immediately knew they had something unusual on their hands.

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The Wyatt sisters shared their discovery in a Facebook post, and the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism game warden, Chris Stout, took notice. He reached out to paleontologists who confirmed what Stout suspected. The discovery was an ancient bear skull, possibly dating back to the ice age. Work is still being done to determine the exact age of the fossil. Researchers believe it may be a grizzly skull, possibly only dating back to the 1800s.

“Whether it is hundreds or thousands of years old, the skull gives us a better insight into the richness of life on the plains before Western man,” Everhart, Adjunct Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum, told KSAL.

Time and further research will tell just how long this unique skull has been waiting for someone to paddle along and make discovery.