Low levels on Mississippi River expose fossils & thrill local
fossil hunters POSTED: Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 3:00pm
UPDATED: Saturday, October 27, 2012 - 3:04pm NBC NATIONAL NEWS —
The water level on the Mississippi river has been unusually low
this year due to the drought in the nation's heart land. While
the low water is a problem for the shipping industry, there is
at least one group who loves it when the river is down. People
are out combing the normally water covered bottom that has been
exposed, for a rarity, fossils. John Moore, known better by his
nickname of Puddin', has been searching the river for decades
and has piles of bones in his shop on south walnut street in
Greenville. George Phillips, Paleontology Curator with the
Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, says most of the fossil
bones found in the Mississippi river are from the late ice age.
It has been a great fossil hunting season for the hunters. "This
year more than the other years because of the low water," said
Phillips. "You look