Skeleton of Ice Age mastodon, cousin of mammoths, unearthed in Michigan

[Jilly_in_VA]

It's been a hot, steamy summer so far in Michigan, but road crews in Kent County are digging up remnants from the Ice Age and, with any luck, they hope to find even more pieces of the puzzle.

The bones of a "really unique" mastodon skeleton found at a road construction site in Kent County on Thursday are on their way to Grand Rapids Public Museum's archive research center to be preserved and studied.

Dr. Cory Redman, the museum's science curator, was contacted about the bones after Kent County Drain Commissioner Ken Yonker emailed Grand Valley State and the University of Michigan. He and other experts initially thought that it was just a couple of bones, but were shocked to discover otherwise.

“It’s not that often that you find a skeleton this complete, it’s probably about 40%-60% complete just based on initial field assessment and so when we got there and we realized there was a lot more to the animal, we were really excited about it," Redman said. "One of the things that makes this find really unique besides being local is all the bones appear to come from a single juvenile mastodon."

Mastodon bones discovered by construction workers in Kent County on Aug. 11.
"Mastodon," refers to a wide variety of extinct elephant-like creatures, and are distant cousins of mammoths, according to the National Park Service.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/16/mastodon-skeleton-mammal-michigan-grand-rapids/10335676002/

[Biophilic]

1. A friend of mine, who lives in West Michigan, told me about her experience of

living literally right next to a mastodon recovery site. She said it was the most interesting experience of her life watching them everyday as they excavated the bones.

[multigraincracker]

2. I was living in Saline at the time these were found and

it was not far from my house.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/longest-known-mastodon-trackway