Researchers at Kansas University are excited about what they may find at a dig site in western Missouri where bones of a prehistoric mammal — probably a young mastodon — were found last week.

“Right at the moment we’re on the edge of discovery,” said Larry Martin, curator of vertebrate paleontology at KU’s Natural History Museum.

Martin and his colleagues last week identified the remains found at Grain Valley, Mo., as those of a mastodon, a relative to the elephant that could have lived as long as 50,000 years ago.

A construction worker came across bones last week while excavating land owned by Debbie and Steve Gildehaus. The bones were in clay 27 feet beneath the surface.

“We were digging a lake and just happened upon it,” Debbie Gildehaus said.

She contacted KU, prompting a visit by Martin. By the end of the week, he was working with vertebrate paleontologist Craig Sundell and their colleague Harry Bartholomew to uncover what appeared to be a rib and another long bone.

Probably a baby

Further excavation was halted last week because of rain.

The Grain Valley mastodon was probably a baby, perhaps 5 feet tall, that died in a bog, Martin said.

Larry Martin, curator of vertebrate paleontology, holds a mastodon tibia from the collection at the KU Natural History Museum at Dyche Hall. KU researchers are helping to excavate bones of a baby mastodon, a prehistoric mammal that is related to the elephant. The mastodon bones were found a week ago in western Missouri.

Last survivors of the species trod the earth 10,000 years ago. They lived across North America, typically standing 6-10 feet tall and measuring 15 feet long, including the trunk. They weighed from 4 tons to 6 tons. Their diet consisted of herbs, shrubs and trees. They were hunted chiefly by saber-toothed cats and early humans.

Martin has found remains of all three — saber-tooths, mammoths and early humans — in Kansas, including what he calls a “pretty good chunk of mastodon” in a clay pit in Doniphan County. Settlers in the St. Louis area found mastodon remains in the early 1800s.

Where mastodons roamed, tools made from their bones sometimes turn up along with the remains of the animals, he said. That raises hope of finding tools near the bones already unearthed on the Gildehaus property, possibly along with more of the skeleton itself.

Seeking context

Martin said with enough help, it might take as little as a couple of weeks to uncover the entire skeleton once the area dries.

“We’re hoping some other people will get in here and dig a bit and help us find something,” he said. “You should always follow things like this out.”

Sundell said the Gildehauses would have to decide what they want to do with the remains. Options include donating the mastodon bones to a museum or an area school district.

Based on the bones’ location, Martin said there was possibility researchers could find an entire skeleton.

KU researchers use dental plaque to learn about mastodon diet (12-29-01) Kansas Geological Survey – about mastodons, wooly mammoths KU Explore magazine story Mastodon State Historic Site (Missouri)

But more interesting to the scientists than the bones is the context of where they were found.

“We’ve found a lot of mastodon bones that have washed off the Kansas River,” Martin said. “The problem was that they were washed out and we didn’t know exactly where they came from. The fact that these were found in the ground is what makes this more interesting.”

On Tuesday morning, Martin contacted Wakefield Dort, geology professor emeritus, to ask for his assistance with the excavation. Dort, Sundell and Bartholomew will conduct the research once the area has dried out in the next few weeks.

Other possibilities

Dort said the fact the bones were found in clay suggested the mastodon died in an area of quiet water such as a lake or bog, not a river.

“We have to wait until the present lake disappears before we can look at the old lake,” said Dort, who retired from KU in 1993 but still performs research.

Dort said he would be looking for any kind of fossils of tree branches, twigs or cones that could tell scientists more about the animal’s surroundings.

“If there are just a few bones, we won’t learn much,” Dort said. “On the other hand, if we can find plant pollen or plant fossils with the bones, that can tell us quite a lot about the environment it was in, whether it was a spruce forest or a tundra.”

Present-day northwest Missouri was on the outskirts of a glacier near present-day Des Moines, Iowa, 60,000 years ago. Dort said if fossilized vegetation was found near the bones, it could resemble the same kind of vegetation now in Canada.

“But we just don’t know what we’ll find,” he said.

Martin said the bones were on a 20-foot by 50-foot earthen pedestal in the middle of what will eventually be the lake.

“The landowners are interested, which makes all the difference in the world,” Martin said. “There are probably several other bones that crop up, but people don’t contact us.”

Martin said researchers would work with private landowners who find bones on their property and not take any longer than necessary so construction work does not get delayed too much.

“It’s just a fear a lot of people have,” Martin said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.