A Nebraska man fishing in a tournament got more than he bargained for after casting his line into the Missouri River earlier this month.
Andy Moore was fishing west of Yankton, South Dakota, when he snagged a rock in the water and kayaked over to take a closer look, reported NBC affiliate WOWT.
“I get up to it, and I’m like, ‘Oh wow! That’s kind of cool,’” Moore told the outlet.
“I thought it was a big catfish skeleton or a deer skeleton. Something told me to take a picture of this.”
Moore shared pictures of the object online, WOWT said, and someone reached out to suggest that it could be a prehistoric fossil.
The fisherman later contacted a biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who confirmed to WOWT that Moore’s find seems to be a predator fish fossil that is up to 90 million years old.
“I’m still kind of mind-blown about the whole thing,” Moore said.
The fossil won’t be underwater anymore, as it’s now being prepared for display at the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center in Crofton, Nebraska.
