CORYDON, Ind. (WHAS11) -- Visitors to the Indiana Caverns can get a rare glimpse into the ice age while a team of paleontologist search for bones and other artifacts that have been buried for centuries.
"In here you can just walk around and point at bones all over the floor so it's really special and neat being down here,” said Braden Catt of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites.
"It's the most bones we've found in Indiana,” said Curator of Geology Peggy Fisherkeller. “It's amazing."
GALLERY: Digging into the past at Indiana Caverns
"It's like a crime lab,” said Ron Richards of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. “We've got to bring the data, protect it, and preserve it. If we lose that chain of evidence the data is no good."
However, the Paleontologists from the Indiana State Museum and Historic sites say that 200 feet below ground the amount of mud provides challenges, but it's what helped preserve the bones.
"The vast majority of bones that are coming out are an animal called the peccary,” said Fisherkeller. “Peccary's are alive today in central America and the southern United States. They're relatives of the modern pig. We had them here in Indiana during the Ice Age."
"That bear skeleton, a lot of it is disintegrated, but it's that one bear,” said Richards. “When you find a skull or parts of it the rest of that animal is there. They haven't washed down from a passage. These are little spots of time."
"To unearth something out of the ground, and you're the first person to see that ever if it's 40,000 years old in Indiana, but the first person to see and hold something is a cool feeling,” said Catt.
"We don't know what else there is,” said Fisherkeller. “We don't know what we don't know. It's great we're working on this now, but there might be another discovery tomorrow."
You can get a glimpse of these paleontologists as they do their important work over the course of the next week on one of the many guided tours that are offered at Indiana Caverns.
►Contact reporter Holden Kurwicki at hkurwicki@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@WHAS11Holden) and Facebook.