UNION, W.Va. — Fossil bones discovered in a West Virginia cave in 1796 and sent to Thomas Jefferson helped scientists identify an extinct giant, although researchers now believe the fossils came from a different cave than the one traditionally associated with the discovery.
Local tradition attributed the fossils to Organ Cave in Greenbrier County, but research more recently published by paleontologist Frederick Grady concluded they probably came from Haynes Cave in Monroe County instead.
The animal became known as Megalonyx, and its best-known species, Megalonyx jeffersonii, was named for Jefferson, who studied the fossilized bones at length at his home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va.
The revelation began when workers in 1796 digging nitrate-bearing soil for saltpeter encountered large bones in a limestone cave in what was then Greenbrier County, Virginia…