NYSUT members lead backyard Mastodon dig

hen Orange County homeowners brought what they thought was a prehistoric tooth to SUNY Orange geology professor Anthony Soricelli last fall, Soricelli admits he was skeptical.

“I thought, okay, here we go, another fossil that turns out to be a rock,” he recalled. Instead, analysis confirmed that the homeowners had unearthed the first remains of a prehistoric mastodon in their backyard. “It’s a once in a career opportunity, if that,” said Soricelli.

The finding was confirmed by Cory Harris, Ph.D., chair of the college’s Behavioral Sciences Department and a professor of anthropology and sociology. Further excavation at the site produced the full jaw of a mastodon, estimated to be between 10,000 and 13,000 years old, and offered the two educators a rare experience: the chance to bring their students on a real dig.

In May, Harris and Soricelli, both members of the Orange County Community College Faculty Association, assembled a team of 12 students for a field class at the mastodon site. The students worked in small teams, six hours a day for six weeks, searching for more skeletal remains and exploring new subjects like paleontology and biology.

Harris, with his background in archaeology, was able to introduce the students to the proper methods for excavating a site and how to record their data.

As a geologist, Soricelli was able to show students how the area was influenced by glacial activity and how to analyze the soil to learn more about the mastodon’s life.

Biology professor Walter Jahn explained the anatomy and physiology of the prehistoric mammal, while paleontologists from the New York State Museum rounded out their studies.

“Of course, the worry was, what if the jaw was the only thing here and now we just have six weeks of digging in the dirt,” Soricelli said.

But that’s not what happened.

The class successfully uncovered 11 intact vertebrae, including the atlas vertebrae right behind the skull, two rib bones, and numerous other fragments. They also definitively concluded that the mastodon had been found in an ancient lakebed.