Mastodon skeletonIn 1879, a near-complete skeleton of a mastodon was discovered near Newburgh, New York, by a farmer's son while digging a ditch. The area had been a bog until drained and cultivated 50 years earlier. From a 5-foot deep trench over the next three days, neighbours unearthed about 200 petrified bones of ribs, spine, legs, feet and a skull complete with teeth and lower jaw. No tusks were found by the time it was reported in theNew York Times on 8 and 9 Jul 1879. This was only one of over a dozen such skeletons reported in that newspaper in the century, many of them found in New York State. In the U.S., the first nearly complete mammoth skeleton was found in that State, in 1801 for Peale's Museum, Philadelphia.«[Image: Mastodon bone size illustrated in otherwise unrelated photo from early 1900's showing St. Louis paleontologist C. W. Beehler (holding a mastodon tooth) at the Kimmswick Bone Bed, Missouri.] |
