Mastodon teeth found in couple's backyard may shed light on New York's Ice Age
Archaeologists — skeptical at first — hail the discovery as an incredible piece of history
One surefire way to brighten an archaeologist's day? Bring him a box of mastodon bones.
That's what happened to Cory Harris when a couple walked into his office at the State University of New York Orange County Community College in September to show him something special they'd found in their backyard.
The professor admits he was skeptical at first.
"Teaching archaeology, people will come to you with things they find in their yard. And typically, they're really, really excited about it," he told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
"And you are put in the position of having to disappoint them."
But nobody was disappointed when Harris opened the box to find two mastodon molars, each roughly the size of a human fist, and both in excellent condition.
"It was astonishing to actually see them," Harris said. "It was the biggest tooth I've ever seen in person."
A subsequent trip to the excavation site — a.k.a. the couple's Orange County property — revealed two more mastodon teeth embedded in a complete jaw, as well as a toe and a partial rib.
The New York State Museum, where the findings are now being housed, is hailing it as a "major discovery" that will help scientists understand the state's rich Ice Age history.
Teeth are like time capsules
Mastodons, which went extinct about 13,000 years ago, were large, hairy mammals that once lived alongside humans in North America, feeding on leaves, fruit and the woody parts of plants. They are cousins to the modern elephant and the also extinct woolly mammoth.
More than 150 mastodon fossils have been discovered across the state of New York, one-third of which come from Orange County, according to the museum.
"It's sort of an unofficial county mascot," Harris said.
Aaron LeBlanc, a paleontologist who studies the evolution and development of teeth at the U.K.'s King's College London, says there's a lot you can learn from a well-preserved dental fossil.
"Mammal teeth are like time capsules," LeBlanc, who is not involved in this research, told CBC in an email. "This can help paint a picture of what life was like for these iconic animals in this part of North America."
But to paint that picture, Harris had to get some help. A community college, he says, lacks the resources needed to properly store — and study — such fossils.
So he reached out to Robert Feranec, curator of ice age animals at the New York State Museum.
When Feranec spotted Harris's email, he eyed it with the same skepticism Harris first had about the Orange County couple.
"Usually when somebody contacts you that you don't know, it's almost always a rock," Feranec told CBC. "It's never a fossil."
But the attached photos, he says, revealed something "breathtaking."
"Fossils are ... a non-renewable resource," he said. "Each specimen is really an important thing, and I can get a lot of information out of it."
Not that long ago, 'geologically speaking'
By piecing together the fragments, carbon dating the fossils and performing a chemical analysis, Feranec hopes to learn how long ago this particular mastodon lived, what it ate, and where it roamed.
"It's probably about 13,000 years old, which seems like a long time ago, but geologically speaking, it is very, very recent," he said.
"There were ... most certainly people on the landscape here in New York when this animal was alive. This is also kind of interesting to think about."
By learning more about mastodons, he says we can better understand how animals of that era responded to a massive climate change event, which could, in turn, help us better protect today's animals from the effects of climate change.
He says he's extremely grateful to the homeowners, who under New York law, could have kept the fossils they found on their private property.
"They recognized it as something important scientifically that they not only wanted to look at and experience, but they wanted everyone else to look at and experience it," he said.
Harris, meanwhile, says he's just thrilled to have been a part of it all.
"I've been teaching at the college for close to 20 years now, and there are times, you know, when you get bogged down in administrative things," he said.
"But every time a possibility reveals itself, it definitely stirs the excitement that got you interested in your field in the first place."
Interview with Cory Harris produced by Sarah Jackson
