Paddler Discovers Mastodon Tusks
5 Nov
You never can tell what you might discover on a canoe outing. Mastodon tusks, however, rank fairly low on the list likely finds.
But for paddler Glen Keeton of Mount Hope, New York, tusks of the extinct mammal were exactly what he found one year ago on a canoe outing with a friend down New York’s Wallkill River. Keeton spotted what looked like a stump protruding from the earth. When he stopped to investigate, he was confident he was looking as mastodon tusks.
Keeton, an archaeologist, quickly brought experts to his find. While the tusk he spotted — and a second one believed to be from the same animal found nearby — weren’t excavated until July, his initial hunch proved true. Although scientists await carbon-dated verification, they believe the tusks belonged to an animal that walked the earth 13,000 years ago.
The New York’s Legislative Gazette has the full story HERE.
