Post by Barry on Jul 31, 2005 14:02:12 GMT -5
I found this in my local newspaper today.
KHEDIVE – The hulking, 4- to 6-ton animals roamed the forests of Greene County more than 10,000 years ago, feasting on trees and vegetation.
Somewhere along the way, one of these elephant-like creatures left behind a tooth that remained in the ground near Khedive until several weeks ago, when Nathan Hildreth unearthed it in his back yard.
"At first, I thought it was a piece of old pottery. It looked like it was white and blue," Hildreth said.
It was only after Hildreth used a stick to poke around the object that he realized it appeared to be a large tooth. He took the find to Waynesburg College museum curator James "Fuzzy" Randolph, an amateur archaeologist. Randolph said the tooth appears to be a molar from an American mastodon, which was a cousin of another prehistoric creature, the wooly mammoth.
"It is a very rare find," Randolph said.
The young avionics technician met Randolph while he was a student at Waynesburg College.
The only other reported find of mastodon remains happened in the 1930s, when Professor Andrew Waychoff excavated parts of a mastodon jaw along Hargus Creek in western Greene County.
Randolph believes the mastodons were not particularly prevalent in this region; otherwise discoveries of their remains would be more common.
Mastodon bones seem to be found more regularly in areas north of Pittsburgh, said Mary Dawson, curator emeritus at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. If someone does manage to come across evidence of these ancient creatures, normally it's in the form of a tooth.
"Teeth are the hardest substance in the body," she said, adding that the enamel will normally decay much slower than bones. Fortunately, fossilized teeth also are the most useful in identifying a species.
Paleontologists, who are scientists who study prehistoric times, "will be able to determine the age and size of the (mastodon), what the animal ate and (give) some insight as to how it arrived in the long valley of Khedive," Randolph said.
Mastodons, along with various other prehistoric creatures such as saber-toothed cats and giant ground sloths, vanished from the earth as the Ice Age came to an end about 10,000 years ago. There are a few theories about why these animals became extinct, such as over hunting by early man or the drastic change of climate.
The tooth found in Khedive has decayed a bit in the weeks since Hildreth pulled it from the earth. He is considering donating the tooth to a museum, but in the meantime, it has been stored in a shoebox in Hildreth's residence.
"I don't want to horde it, but I would like to know where it's at and how it's being displayed," he said.
Hildreth may have stumbled across the artifact, but people who lived on the property decades ago may have inadvertently aided the discovery.
Hildreth said that about 70 years ago, people maintained a wildcat coal mine on the hillside behind the house where he lives. The miners dumped the dirt from the mining at the base of the hill.
Hildreth believes the mastodon tooth originally came from that soil because years later, when the original house was demolished and a new one was built, workers used that fill to level the land for a garage.
BY CARA HOST, Staff writer — Observer
Publishing Co.
Washington, PA
KHEDIVE – The hulking, 4- to 6-ton animals roamed the forests of Greene County more than 10,000 years ago, feasting on trees and vegetation.
Somewhere along the way, one of these elephant-like creatures left behind a tooth that remained in the ground near Khedive until several weeks ago, when Nathan Hildreth unearthed it in his back yard.
"At first, I thought it was a piece of old pottery. It looked like it was white and blue," Hildreth said.
It was only after Hildreth used a stick to poke around the object that he realized it appeared to be a large tooth. He took the find to Waynesburg College museum curator James "Fuzzy" Randolph, an amateur archaeologist. Randolph said the tooth appears to be a molar from an American mastodon, which was a cousin of another prehistoric creature, the wooly mammoth.
"It is a very rare find," Randolph said.
The young avionics technician met Randolph while he was a student at Waynesburg College.
The only other reported find of mastodon remains happened in the 1930s, when Professor Andrew Waychoff excavated parts of a mastodon jaw along Hargus Creek in western Greene County.
Randolph believes the mastodons were not particularly prevalent in this region; otherwise discoveries of their remains would be more common.
Mastodon bones seem to be found more regularly in areas north of Pittsburgh, said Mary Dawson, curator emeritus at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. If someone does manage to come across evidence of these ancient creatures, normally it's in the form of a tooth.
"Teeth are the hardest substance in the body," she said, adding that the enamel will normally decay much slower than bones. Fortunately, fossilized teeth also are the most useful in identifying a species.
Paleontologists, who are scientists who study prehistoric times, "will be able to determine the age and size of the (mastodon), what the animal ate and (give) some insight as to how it arrived in the long valley of Khedive," Randolph said.
Mastodons, along with various other prehistoric creatures such as saber-toothed cats and giant ground sloths, vanished from the earth as the Ice Age came to an end about 10,000 years ago. There are a few theories about why these animals became extinct, such as over hunting by early man or the drastic change of climate.
The tooth found in Khedive has decayed a bit in the weeks since Hildreth pulled it from the earth. He is considering donating the tooth to a museum, but in the meantime, it has been stored in a shoebox in Hildreth's residence.
"I don't want to horde it, but I would like to know where it's at and how it's being displayed," he said.
Hildreth may have stumbled across the artifact, but people who lived on the property decades ago may have inadvertently aided the discovery.
Hildreth said that about 70 years ago, people maintained a wildcat coal mine on the hillside behind the house where he lives. The miners dumped the dirt from the mining at the base of the hill.
Hildreth believes the mastodon tooth originally came from that soil because years later, when the original house was demolished and a new one was built, workers used that fill to level the land for a garage.
BY CARA HOST, Staff writer — Observer
Publishing Co.
Washington, PA
