{"id":18697,"date":"2024-12-19T14:53:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18697"},"modified":"2024-12-20T04:24:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T04:24:21","slug":"they-thought-it-was-an-old-baseball-it-was-a-mastodon-tooth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18697","title":{"rendered":"They Thought It Was an Old Baseball. It Was a Mastodon Tooth."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Remarkably well preserved ice age remains like those discovered recently in a yard near Scotchtown, N.Y., are rare \u2014 but not as rare as you might think.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

A married couple arrived in Cory Harris\u2019s office in late September, carrying a plain cardboard box about the size of a dictionary. They were excited to open it, and to show Dr. Harris the amazing things inside.<\/p>\n

Dr. Harris felt a sense of dread, and he prepared to deliver bad news.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore often than not, it\u2019s a weird rock,\u201d said Dr. Harris, an archaeologist and chair of the behavioral sciences department at SUNY\u2019s Orange County Community College. \u201cYou disappoint people, because they thought it was something really cool. And it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The box was opened. What he saw inside \u2014 two yellowed teeth from a long-dead mastodon \u2014 stirred in Dr. Harris a thrill he hadn\u2019t felt in years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was crazy<\/em> excited,\u201d said Dr. Harris, 50, who has worked in archaeology for nearly 30 years. \u201cIt was the same old-school excitement I felt when I got into this field in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The discovery of the remarkably well preserved mastodon jaw was announced Tuesday by the New York State Department of Education, which runs the New York State Museum<\/a>, where scientists are studying the artifact. Fearful that their home near Scotchtown, N.Y., would be overrun by news crews or treasure hunters, the couple declined to be named or interviewed for this article.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. Harris, the mastodon jaw was discovered when the couple noticed something poking out of the grass in their backyard.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remarkably well preserved ice age remains like those discovered recently in a yard near Scotchtown, N.Y., are rare \u2014 but not as rare as you might think.A married couple arrived in Cory Harris\u2019s office in late September, carrying a plain cardboard box about the size of a dictionary. They were excited to open it, and to show Dr. Harris the amazing things inside.Dr. Harris felt a sense of dread, and he prepared to deliver bad news.\u201cMore often than not, it\u2019s a weird rock,\u201d said Dr. Harris, an archaeologist and chair of the behavioral sciences department at SUNY\u2019s Orange County Community College. \u201cYou disappoint people, because they thought it was something really cool. And it\u2019s not.\u201dThe box was opened. What he saw inside \u2014 two yellowed teeth from a long-dead mastodon \u2014 stirred in Dr. Harris a thrill he hadn\u2019t felt in years.\u201cI was crazy excited,\u201d said Dr. Harris, 50, who has worked in archaeology for nearly 30 years. \u201cIt was the same old-school excitement I felt when I got into this field in the first place.\u201dThe discovery of the remarkably well preserved mastodon jaw was announced Tuesday by the New York State Department of Education, which runs the New York State Museum, where scientists are studying the artifact. Fearful that their home near Scotchtown, N.Y., would be overrun by news crews or treasure hunters, the couple declined to be named or interviewed for this article.According to Dr. Harris, the mastodon jaw was discovered when the couple noticed something poking out of the grass in their backyard.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18699,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18700,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18697\/revisions\/18700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}