Man Discovers Centuries Old Secret Inside A Wildlife Park While Hunting For Elks

 The archaeologists have discovered innumerable things hidden beneath this planet. From artifacts to remains of entire dynasties, they have found a diverse collection of things. Yet even after all these discoveries and excavations, there are still millions of undiscovered secrets in the depths of the Earth.

One such discovery happened accidentally by a man who loved adventure and hunting. Reliving his past, he discovered something extraordinary.

CMR NWR

The Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge ( CMR NWR )is a National Wildlife Refuge located in the U.S. state of Montana. It is the second-largest National Wildlife Refuge in the lower 48 states of the United States.

A Hunting Area

More than 250,000 people visit the Russell National Wildlife Refuge each year. This makes it one of the most visited national wildlife refuges in the United States. The hunting and fishing in the refuge are allowed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Elk

Elk is the priority species on the refuge as they are the only species mentioned in the refuge’s enabling legislation. Most of the people have seen and hunted Elks and keeping the spirit high, one more hunter headed on to bag one of the Elks.

A November Afternoon

On one fine afternoon of  November  2010, a hunter named David Bradt ventured into Montana’s Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in a hope to hunt an elk. He stepped in the refuge and with full positivity and started the hunt.

Unlucky

Unlucky David could not find any elk that day hence was disheartened. He wanted to brag about his courage in front of his family but, he assumed the place was full of elks and he could not bag any of the elks.

Not Alone

When David was all in despair, he saw two people going through the same situation as his. He lifted his confidence and began his search once again. He was adamant about bagging an elk.

A Little Help?

David thought of asking for a little help. Till the time he made up his mind and stood up, the people wandering here and there were out of his sight. He then decided to give up on the idea of hunting down an elk.

Glorified Past

David Bradt recalled how his father, who was a renowned hunter used to have an exact idea where he could find animals. His father was called “the shooter” by many people and David wanted to be like his father.

Inferior

Bradt compared himself to his dad and thought himself to be a loser. He pitied himself for not being able to keep up the good name of his dad. He walked so that he could overcome his anxiety.

The Walk

The comparison he made was not even rational. The way he thought about himself lead him to nowhere and would evoke an inferiority complex in him. He rejects the fact that everyone has got different personalities and continued walking.

Breathtaking Sight!

While walking, David’s eyes caught a breathtaking sight. Crystal clear blue water reflecting the rays from its surface, moist land with trees around and the silence prevailed there helped David to escape the chaos. He could recall his old childhood days.

Remembering Childhood

Seeing the moist land, David could remember his childhood days when he used to create a castle out of the sand with his beloved sister. They used to have a competition of castle making which David used to win all the time.

Digging The Soil

To relive his childhood, he started feeling the soil like he used to do back in his childhood. The only difference he could feel was the time, other than that the feelings were still the same.

The Stink

As he started digging the soil, he smelled something rotten. He could barely take that foul smell and stepped back in order to inhale some fresh air. He was all perplexed and wanted to know what is that rotten substance.

Searched Nearby

David thought that place to be so lonesome and assumed that there could be a hidden dead body. He searched nearby so that he could find the hidden body. To his dismay, he was not able to get even a clue regarding it.

Fish?

He called off his search and believed that the producer of the foul smell must be aquatic life such as fishes. He did not carry on further and thought of going back to the place where he first tried to create a sandcastle on the soil.

Back To Place

David went back to the place and started making a dumpling kind of structure holding the soil between the space of his hands. He made three dumpling structures already and was about to make another one.

The Fourth Dumpling

For making the fourth structure, David cupped his hands with soil and started rubbing the soil so that all the lumps could be softened. While doing so, David felt something hard inside the soil. He again pressed the soil, but, the lump was still there.

A Piece of Bone

David discovered that in between the soil lumps was a piece of bone. He analyzed the bone and concluded that it belonged to an animal and not to human which made him sigh. The bone could not preserve itself over time.

Continued

He kept aside the bone and continued with his castle making. He dug the soil and for the second time, he felt stick-like structures, but this time, it was beneath the soil. He dug and dug deeper and he found more bones hidden inside the layer of the moist soil.

Petrified Wood?

On uncovering, he spotted something, which he believed was petrified wood. On having a closer look, David realized that it was not the wood but bones.

Dead Elk

He assumed that it was probably just from a dead elk or a bighorn sheep that called the refuge home. David was not confident enough while making this statement, hence, he thought of taking external help for this matter.

External Help

David reached out to both wildlife services and the paleontology department of a local museum before reaching out to some unlikely experts for help. though David was enriched with knowledge of bones but this case was somewhat different for him. Hence, he sought external help.

Interested Children

David’s children loved dinosaurs. They read many books and comics that included dinosaurs in it. Taking this as an advantage, David made his children join him and help him in digging the soil furthermore.

Deceived

David tried convincing his children by saying that they would get an opportunity to see a dinosaur if they join him. Both the boys agreed to his father and prepared themselves for the upcoming adversities. 

The Trio

The trio started with clearing the dirt away from the bone. The children efficiently followed the instructions of their father and tried observing their father’s way of working.

Revealed

While the trio was engrossed in clearing the bones, something unusual happened. They kept on revealing more and more bones. The night sky stretched but the trio could not succeed in getting a whole lot of bones out. After making sure the sight was kept a secret, they headed back home.

The Size

On uncovering the bones, it was the size that baffled David. He exclaimed, “it’s about the size of a cow.” Bones were massive which made it tough to keep the site a secret.

Why Hide?

The question that arises was why David wanted to hide the site or keep it a secret? It was because rare fossils are valuable and can attract robbers who are in search of big money. In order to keep the fossils safe, the site has to be a secret. 

History

One hundred million years ago, the entire region was one giant mud pit on the bottom of an inland sea. That meant the creature, despite being found in the middle of Montana, was likely aquatic.

Mosasaurus

Scientists, while studying the fossil, initially suspected the bone belonged to a Mosasaurus. A Mosasaurus is a giant predatory creature that resembled a lizard mixed with a whale. But, what came up, proved scientists wrong.

Plesiosaur

After their first failure, their next best guess was a plesiosaur. A plesiosaur is similar to the mythical Loch Ness monster. For the second time, scientists had to face failure since the bones did not seem to match up.

Unearthed

Scientists started dissolving the rocks so that they could find more bones. The dirt was washed away and delicately the bones were being recovered. Astonished scientists unearthed something unusual. 

A Dinosaur Skull

Finally, the team was able to fetch something really big, that was, a dinosaur skull. Unlike traditionally shaped cranium, the skull was more like a big cat or an alligator. They also found an unusually large tail wrapped along with the mass of bones. So, the external help demanded more helping hands. 

Analysis

For detailed analysis, the bones were sent to scientists at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. At first, they too claimed the skeleton to be of a plesiosaur but after a deep study and analysis, they marked the difference.

Something Deadly

Scientists claimed that plesiosaurs are known for their serpentine long necks and the skeleton they presented, lack this feature. The scientists concluded that the fossil belonged to something undiscovered and deadly.

Elasmosaurus

After studying the fossil in detail, scientists concluded that it belonged to an Elasmosaurus. Elasmosaurus is a variant of plesiosaur. The only difference between the two is the neck. Elasmosaurus’ neck consists of fewer vertebrae than an average plesiosaur’s.

Discovery

The discovery of this species led scientists to search more and collect more data about the species. Before the discovery of this fossil, the existence of Elasmosaur was only an assumption. Scientists began searching for more such species. 

Unbelievable

It is somehow hard to digest that dinosaurs existed on this planet but the fossils that are being discovered are proving all of us wrong. The moviemakers are taking this discovery to a different level by introducing people to know more about deadly dinosaurs and ultimately enhancing their income with this.