“We were just digging along and getting ready to set a pipe, and all of a sudden I took one more scoop and there was this big long red thing that didn’t look quite normal. I sent one of my guys down in there, like ‘hey, what is that?’”
Speaking with WGVU is Kevin Busscher, President of Busscher Development in West Michigan.
“He picks it up, wrestles it out–it’s a three-foot-long femur! Pulled that one out, set it to the side, like ‘Well, might as well take another scoop!’ Took another scoop, and there’s the other femur! That’s when we shut the whole thing down and started making phone calls.”
Calls went out to the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology’s Dr. Scott Beld, as well as the Grand Rapids’ Public Museum’s Dr. Corey Redman, who said, arriving on site, they had no idea what to expect.
“We thought it was just going to be a couple of bones. But then when we got on site that Friday morning about 9AM, we realized it was a lot more extensive.”
Found along 22 Mile Road on the Clapp family property, researchers estimate the skeleton is a mastodon juvenile, between 40 and 60% complete. Dr. Beld says that makes the specimen even more special.
“Most mastodons and mammoths we find are adult animals, so this was sort of exciting in that sense that we have a juvenile.”
Backup was called, and volunteers rushed to the scene: Landowners, neighbors, and even the construction team grabbed shovels.
In just one day, the skeleton was successfully extracted and now sits in the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
“The museum is just thrilled that we get to add it to our collection, and that we have that opportunity to work with the University of Michigan. I mean, that kind of collaboration between different institutions is the way you do great projects these days.”
The Grand Rapids Public Museum and the University of Michigan will begin a joint project to ensure the bones are preserved and studied in full. Museum officials aim to display these bones at the GRPM in the next two years.
