Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The mastodon in the backyard


Every now and then I find a bird feather or a deer hoofprint in my backyard (the hoofprint in the mud, of course).  That's moderately exciting.

Imagine how much more exciting it would be to find a mastodon skeleton in your backyard.

That's what happened recently in Michigan.  While this is apparently a very complete mastodon, apparently finding mastodon fossils is not an uncommon thing to happen in Michigan.

I'd sure like to find one.  I have found a couple of nice trilobites, though.

Huge 13,000 year old mastodon is found in a field a couple of years after students found some mystery bones

"Students at an outdoor learning camp were exploring the grounds when they stumbled across huge bones, exposed by the eroding soil.

[ The Fowler Center - Mastodon Excavation
During a four-day excavation last week, the team was able to recover the rest of the animal, unearthing most of the beast’s huge limb bones along with its skull and enormous shoulder blades and hip bone. It is believed to be one of less than 10 near-complete specimens found in the state."



No comments: