A sea level study research team excavated a ten-foot deep hole below the seafloor at the eastern end of the Island have made an amazing discovery.

One and a half feet below the seabed and embedded within black organic material below the stump roots of a five trees, the team found well-preserved, intact bones.

Careful excavation yielded the bone fragments of three or four creatures, including a small skull fragment two inches long.

The exact age and identity of these mysterious creatures that inhabited the Island over a thousand years ago, will remain a mystery until experts can make positive identifications over the next few months.

Two members of the team, Teddy Tucker and Steve Blasco, said the bones and skull were found below the tree stumps of five trees, preserved in their original ?upright? growth positions, and embedded in the organic soil of an ancient forest floor ? in less than five feet of water.

These partially revealed stumps stand only a few inches above the seafloor now as the tree trunks have been worn away by the ebb and flow of the sea ? since the rising sea level first flooded the area 1,400 years ago, killing the trees.

But the discoveries did not end there.

The excavation team expected the hole would end in hard Bermuda dune bedrock.

But under the bone-rich organic section was a layer of very dense compacted organic matter, which was very difficult to cut and slowed the excavation process.

Below this dense layer, the divers dug through five feet of lose beach sand that bottomed out in a thin layer of large shells and shell fragments.

Thinking the bedrock must be just below the shell fragments, the divers continued to excavate the hole.

Still no bedrock, yet another section of soft black organic material. At this point the excavation stopped to leave sufficient time to collect samples, from the bottom of the hole, to the seabed ten feet above. Recovered organic layers, bones, sand and shells will be identified and radiocarbon dated which will also reveal the origin of the various layers.

Whether these organic sections represent soil, marsh or lakebed deposits will assist in establishing the rate of sea level rise over the past few thousand years and help predict the future rate of sea level rise over the next 100 years.