The Perry Mastodon. At Wheaton College.
Roy Plotnick has a new article over on Medium. This time he's written about Mammoths and Mastodons discovered in the Chicago area. I knew there were a bunch found, but wow!
On October 25, 1880, workers putting in a sewer line along Fowler Ave. (now Schiller St.) just west of Wicker Park on the north side of Chicago, made an unexpected discovery. Some 13 feet down, in a layer of peat and muck, they found the tooth, a rib, and a portion of a tusk of what was then identified as a mastodon. The fossils were put on display in the mayor’s office, eventually ending up in the collections of the Chicago Academy of Sciences (the tusk is still there; it is not clear where the tooth and rib are). I recently had a chance to examine the tusk and reidentified the animal as a mammoth, based on its internal structure[i], an interpretation supported by paleontologist Chris Widga of East Tennessee State University.
These fossils remain the only fossil proboscideans (the extinct mammoths and mastodons) found within the city limits. Nevertheless, occurrences of both ancient animals are found throughout the region, telling us that they were common animals of the area before their unfortunate extinction and thus part of our geoheritage. They are still rare enough as fossils, however, that every occurrence is of note. Before I summarize what is known, it is important to briefly distinguish between the two extinct mammals (for more details, see All About Mastodon).
