Dozens more mastodon bones found at Kent County excavation site

KENT COUNTY, MI – The mastodon bones discovered by a Grand Rapids-area construction crew keeps on giving.

Another 32 bones have been recovered from the excavation site, the Grand Rapids Public Museum reported.

The bones were found in a pile of top soil and dirt, known as a “spoil pile,” that contractors had made just before they made the mastodon discovery, the museum reported on Facebook.

The first bones were discovered Aug. 11 by the construction crew replacing a drainage culvert on 22 Mile Road, north of Kent City.

An excavator operator noticed something reddish in the soil and workers quickly found massive leg bones they knew did not belong to farm animals.

A University of Michigan archeologist told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press the bones likely belonged to a juvenile mastodon between the ages of 10 and 20. Mastodons roamed Michigan about 12,000 years ago, a time when humans also were in the area.

Related: West Michigan’s mastodon discovery exciting for researchers, community

Mastodons were large elephant-like creatures that weighed five to eight tons as adults and had long, shaggy hair. They were similar to wooly mammoths but slightly smaller with shorter legs.

The museum is working with UM to excavate, preserve and study the remains, which eventually will be housed at the museum.

The mastodon has been named the Clapp Family Mastodon after the family who lives on the property where the bones were found. The family has agreed to donate the bones, over which UM will have jurisdiction for study purposes.

The Grand Rapids Public Museum has bones from two other mastodons in its collections. One is named “Smitty” and was found in Grandville in the 1980s. The other, called the “Moorland” mastodon was found in 1904 in Moorland, north of Ravenna in Muskegon County.

Mastodon bones also were found in 2017 at a Byron Township construction site south of Grand Rapids.

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