Is A New Dinosaur Coming To Grand Rapids Museum? Yes!

It was a very surprising find last week for a Kent County road crew. Seriously, something you are not expecting at all. They unearthed a dinosaur! Well, the bones, anyway.

Fox 17 reported that a set of Mastodon bones were found at an intersection along 22 Mile Road in Kent City last week.

At first the crew thought they had dug up a red pipe, but it did not look right. So, they kept digging and realized they had discovered two femurs and a leg bone.

Hold one here. Had they finally discovered Jimmy Hoffa?

Unearthing Mastodon Bones in  Kent City

Well, not exactly, since these bones were pretty massive, too big for a human. So, again, they kept digging, gingerly, and discovered a large pelvic bone (intact!) along with a mandible, shoulder blade and some pieces of vertebrae. Holy Tyrannosaurus Rex!

Tyrannosaurus Rex

After further digging and discovery, it was determined it was actually a Mastodon. This was a youngster, too, thought to be less than ten-years-old when it died.

GRPM Discovering Mastodon Bones

When were Mastodons here? Probably about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago, Mastodons were more closely related to our modern day elephant, not the Mammoth we think of.

Woolly Mammoth

They lived in herds and were forest dwelling. But, Mastodons disappeared from North America as part of a mass extinction of most of the animals widely believed to have been caused by a combination of climate changes at the end that era, and overexploitation by Paleo-Indians. Hmmm.....anything sound familiar here?

Grand Rapids Public Museum

So, what is happening now with the discovery? The University of Michigan is currently assisting with the discovery, as is the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The bones were found on private property and the owners have pledged to donate them to the museum.

Exciting!