Fort Mill diver finds prehistoric bear tooth in South Carolina river

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Scientists said a prehistoric bear tooth was recently found in South Carolina.

A Fort Mill man was diving in the Cooper River in Charleston when he found the 3-inch long fossil.

At first, paleontologists thought the tooth belonged to some type of lion but now they think it came from a giant short-faced bear.

They said the bears weighed over 1,000 pounds and went extinct about 11,000 years ago.

Eric Proulx found the tooth on March 20 while diving with Cooper River Dive Charters.

“I honestly wasn’t that excited about it at first,” he said. “I thought it was a whale or a dolphin tooth. It’s crazy because you never know what you’re going to find out there.”

“These bears are the biggest carnivores that have ever been in North America,” said Richard Hulbert, Florida Museum’s vertebrate paleontology collection manager.

Proulx said he plans to donate the fossil to the South Carolina State Museum’s natural history collection.

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