New York man finds mastodon jaw while gardening in his backyard

SCHOTCHTOWN, NY — Scientists are cheering the discovery of a fossilized mastodon jaw, discovered by a man who spotted two giant teeth while gardening at his home in upstate New York this year.

The mastodon jaw and several other bone fragments were found in late September in a backyard near Scotchtown, a hamlet about 70 miles (112 kilometers) northwest of New York City, New York State Museum officials said.

The owner of the backyard did not want to be identified, said Robert Feranec, director of research and collections at the state museum and curator of Ice Age animals.

The person saw what he initially thought were baseballs, Feranec said Wednesday. “He picked them up and realized they were teeth,” he said.

Excavations by staff from the museum and the Orange County campus of the State University of New York have yielded a complete, well-preserved jaw of an adult mastodon, as well as a piece of toe bone and a rib fragment, museum officials said.

“Although the jaw is the star of the show, the additional toe and rib fragments provide valuable context and potential for additional research,” said Cory Harris, chair of SUNY Orange’s behavioral sciences department. “We also hope to explore the immediate area further to see if any more bones have been preserved.”

Officials at the Albany-based state museum said the jaw was the first complete mastodon jaw found in New York in 11 years. They said more than 150 fossils have been found the extinct elephant relative found so far statewide, with about a third of them in Orange County, in the same area as the recent find.

Feranec said the newly excavated jaw “provides a unique opportunity to study the ecology of this beautiful species, which will increase our understanding of the Ice Age ecosystems in this region.”

The fossils will be carbon dated and analyzed to determine the mastodon’s age, diet and habitat during its lifetime. They will go on public display sometime in 2025, museum officials said.