Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / June 2004

I'm told in the south west fossils are mildly radioactive. GPS helps you
come back to the same place you or someone else made a find in.

In my area (Orange County, NY), where many mastodon skeletons have been
found (perhaps more than any other location), most have been found in
former glacial lake beds.

GPS in conjunction with a map can be vital. Being able to come back to
the same spot can be very helpful.

For useful terrain look for streams that have created steep banks and
get a good geologic map and look for ice age lake beds.

Another useful thing to try is contact your lock rock hound club
university geology department. You can often find local experts willing
to point you in the right direction.

Ken

well, I recall teeth being plowed up in the early 70's on a friends
farm about 25 miles east of Lansing, but don't recall much in the way
of complete or other fractional remains in the area at all.

cheers
Don Hilliker
Intricate Articles
http://www.intricatearticles.com

To find mastodon remains in Michigan, you need to look in
Pleistocene-age deposits--which of course are very widespread in that
state. Much of the surface debris in Michigan is of latest Pleistocene
age, roughly 15,000 to 9,500 years old--gravel, sand, silt and clay
left behind during the final retreats of the great glaciers. For
specific information pertaining to localities that yield proboscidean
mastodons, check with geology professors at any of the major
universities in Michigan. But, know this,too--you can't collect
vertebrate fossils in the US without a special permit, a permit given
only to trained, qualified scientists with a degree from an accredited
university. Exceptions to that ironclad rule would be fossil
occurrences on private lands. If you can secure the owner's
unambiguous permission to collect there (get that permission in
writing, by the way), you may of course then keep whatever vertebrate
remains you find.

Now, let's' see if I recollect my Pleistocene geology studies with any
kind of accuracy. My understanding is that there were four major
glacial stages during the Pleistocene Epoch (an epoch that lasted from
roughly 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago--well...then again, some folks
get real picky about the end-time Pleistocene date and say that the
Pleistocene really ended about 11,000 years age. And then there are
other argumentative types, who'd like to pick a fight, who maintain
with righteous resolve that the Pleistocene never really ended, that
we're merely in an interglacial stage, between advances of additional
glacier cold deepness...): from youngest to oldest, the stages are
named,

1)Wisconsin Stage 10,000-50,000 years

Sangamon Interglacial Period 50,000-200,000 years

2)Illinoian Stage 200,000-300,000 years

Yarmoth Interglacial Period 300,000-600,000 years

3)Kansan Stage 600,000-700,000 years

Aftonian Interglacial Period 700,000-900,000 years

4)Nebraskan Stage 900,000-1,000,000 years.

And further--the Wisconsin Stage is then subdivided into the following
substages:

Farmdale
Iowan 22,000-20,000 years
Tazewell 20,000-15,000 years
Cary 14,000-12,000 years
Mankato 12,000-11,400 years
Two Creeks Interval start 11,400 years
Valders (minor advance)

In Michigan, if I'm not mistaken, all of the mastodon remains are
restricted to deposits relating to the final retreat of the great
glaciers--that is, the bones lie within gravels, sands, silts and
clays left behind during the very latest Pleistocene, roughly 12,000
to 10,000 years old; such fossil remains of the famed ponderous
proboscideans occur within the Cary and Mankato substages, extending
also into the Two Creeks interval.

"This Ol' Riverboat"--my solo, acoustic, instrumental 6-string guitar
rendition of the famous folk song made famous by the New Christy
Minstrels on their LP, "Today," which was essentially the soundtrack
for the US Civil War film, "Advance To The Rear," starring Glenn Ford.
http://members.aol.com/geowrs/music/thisolriverboat.html