Experts Digging On This Historic Island Unearthed A Breathtaking 17-Million-Year-Old Secret

On the Mediterranean island Lesbos, a team of researchers slave away beneath the winter sun. Scanning a stretch of highway in the picturesque northwest, an eagle-eyed observer has spotted something out of the ordinary. And now the group are determined to dig deeper, slowly uncovering a colossal secret that’s been buried for millions of years.

A land dripping in myth and legend, Lesbos is just the sort of place where you might expect to encounter an ancient mystery. But unlike the Greek heroes of old, the people unraveling this riddle are scientists: geologists studying what the island looked like in prehistoric times. So what exactly have they found in this unlikely location?

Millions of years ago, Lesbos was a very different place, populated by strange creatures and subtropical vegetation. But even these days, some relics of that distant time remain. And it was while investigating one of the island’s historical sites that researchers stumbled upon an awe-inspiring reminder of the past.

Was it the remains of some giant animal that once stalked this far-flung corner of the Aegean Sea? Or something altogether more mysterious, left over from a time when humans had yet to evolve from apes? For several weeks the team painstakingly excavated the discovery, in the process revealing something that hadn’t been seen on the island before.

The story began with the work of Nikolas Zouros, a University of the Aegean professor who specializes in geology. Since 1995 he’s been heading a research team based on Lesbos, dedicated to studying the unique landscape of this fascinating island. But even he couldn’t have predicted what they’d ultimately find.