My Sister and I visited the Missouri Institute of Natural Science last week where they have artifacts found in the Riverbluff Cave nearby. The cave is about 830,000 years old (making it the oldest known fossil cave site in the US. The actual cave is not open to the public due to continuing research. But the museum's collection of artifacts and fossils are well worth checking out!

The cave Is located in the widespread karst landscape of the Springfield Plateau of the western Missouri Ozarks and developed within the soluble Mississippian limestones of the region.(Source) The cave and museum is located at 2327 W. Farm Road 190, Springfield, MO 65810

Until just over 10 years ago, no one knew of the existence of this cave. It was found during road excavation on September 11, 2001. While the rest of the country was reeling from what happened in NYC, the cave was discovered accidentally when the county was preparing to blast for a new road on the outskirts of Springfield, MO. I doesn't cost anything to visit the museum, they do ask for a modest donation if you are so inclined.

A prehistoric water-filled cave in the Dominican Republic has become a "treasure trove" with the announcement by Indiana University archaeologists of the discovery of stone tools, a small primate skull in remarkable condition, and the claws, jawbone and other bones of several species of sloths.

The discoveries extend by thousands of years the scope of investigations led Charles Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs at IU Bloomington's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and his interdisciplinary team of collaborators.

From the moment we saw it, we knew the place held many great secrets. We had been looking for new fossil sites on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 1992 with our colleagues, Helen F. James and Storrs L. Olson of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., along with their children, Travis and Sydney, and our own, Mara and Alec.

And what we found was a cave — once a Pleistocene dune field, and later a sinkhole with pickling-jar powers — that may be the richest fossil site in the Hawaiian Islands, perhaps in the entire Pacific Island region.