Mastodon found in Kent City to be unveiled at Grand Rapids Public Museum

By Kathryn Havrilla

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    GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (WXMI) — Soon you’ll be able to take a closer look at one of West Michigan’s residents from 13,000 years ago.

We’ve learned the highly-anticipated exhibit will open on Sept. 11.

Three years ago, road crews stumbled upon the bones of a mastodon near an intersection along 22 Mile Road. It was on the property of the Clapp Family, who donated the bones to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

You can get a sneak peek at the exhibit now, though. The museum shared in a release that progress is underway on the first floor now, with the assembly of a 3D-printed model and the skeleton underway.

For a year and a half, the bones have been drying in the Museum’s Collections. We got a look at the process of scanning all the bones last year. The bones are 13,210 years old. The Museum says the bones are a “remarkably complete specimen with around 130 bones, or 70% recovered”. The animal was around 10 years old when it died.

GRPM also teases that “a traveling exhibit featuring something bigger” will be “stomping into” the Museum on Oct. 11. More information will be released on Sept. 2.

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