Mastodon Bones Discovered In Michigan Man's Yard

1/2. Daniel LaPoint Jr., left, and Eric Witzke show just a few of the many mastodon bones found on Witzke's property.

... At first, they thought they had found a dinosaur. As it turned out, they had uncovered a mastodon -- a 5-ton animal that was the slightly smaller cousin of the woolly mammoth and distant relative of the modern elephant.

The two plan to keep a few of the bones, but donate the rest to the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology.

An expert there has already examined the bones and believes they may be the remains of an ancient meal for early Americans.

"Preliminary examination indicates that the animal may have been butchered by humans," University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher told MLive.com. "The scientific value is really the new perspective, the new information, that specimens like these can bring."

Fisher told AP that the bones belonged to a 37-year-old male mastodon that lived between 10,000 and 14,000 years ago.

That's right around the time of the area's first known human settlers, the Paleo-Indians who arrived some 12,000 years ago. [...] huffingtonpost.com


Link 2: Encuentran un esqueleto de mastodonte de hace más de 10.000 años con huellas de descarnamiento en Michigan
Mientras estaba trabajando en el patio de Eric Witzke, el contratista Daniel LaPoint descubrió una costilla gigante que sobresalía de la tierra
 
Al realizar trabajos de remoción de tierra en el jardín de una casa en Michigan, ha quedado al descubierto el esqueleto de un mastodonte de hace entre 10.000 y 14.000 años. Los huesos muestran huellas de descarnación, según el director del Museo de Paleontología de la Universidad de Michigan, por lo que habría servido de alimento a los primeros pobladores de la zona.