inspectorgadget
Hero Member
- Jul 14, 2012
- 924
- 431
- Detector(s) used
- Whites MXT with 10"DD coil, Sun Ray probe
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Whats the chance more Mastodon bones are near a recent tooth find?
OK here is the story. One of my good friends wife's grandparents property (which is 110ish acres & 30% or so is steep ravines), one of the main ravines starts right back 30 feet behind the house as a nothing with a slightly marshy area & then a little ravine & if you follow the little ravine 500 ft or so it becomes pretty big maybe 50 feet high walls & just a steep big ravine. It continues on far back off of their property & this system of ravines ends up at a medium size river.
My friends wife's sisters boyfriend was walking the small creek area in the ravine that starts behind the house & found a Mastodon tooth, a moller. He took it to a local university & they identified it as a mastodon tooth & they offered to buy it from him. He didn't sell it.
Now what are the chances more of this animal is in this same general area? Is it common to find a single tooth or does that usually mean there is probably more there to be found? It obviously eroded out of this ravine but not sure how to go about locating more other than searching every square inch of the sides of the ravine for anything visible protruding out of the ground & while there isn't much to hide the ground like right now in the winter. It would be a lot of area to cover too, a whole lot!
Just wondering what the odds are of finding single pieces such as a tooth like this & nothing else being in the area. I understand a glacier could have deposited it there & thus would possibly be the only piece of its kind in the area. I'm just hoping the marshy area at the top of the ravine is a hint to a long lived small spring that once might have helped make the ravine area a swampy area way back when & thus with lots of time helped make the ravine as well. If it was once a large marshy area I think chances are very good mastodons visited there & thus could have died there as well. Other than this system of ravines that leads to the river. The rest of the area in this county is very flat farm land.
Most of the walls of the ravine are glacial till material but down lower it gets slightly sandstoneish but not exactly sandstone. A soft sandstone like material, BTW this is in western central Indiana & whole mastodon finds are not all that unusual here.
Opinions? Thoughts? Tips?
OK here is the story. One of my good friends wife's grandparents property (which is 110ish acres & 30% or so is steep ravines), one of the main ravines starts right back 30 feet behind the house as a nothing with a slightly marshy area & then a little ravine & if you follow the little ravine 500 ft or so it becomes pretty big maybe 50 feet high walls & just a steep big ravine. It continues on far back off of their property & this system of ravines ends up at a medium size river.
My friends wife's sisters boyfriend was walking the small creek area in the ravine that starts behind the house & found a Mastodon tooth, a moller. He took it to a local university & they identified it as a mastodon tooth & they offered to buy it from him. He didn't sell it.
Now what are the chances more of this animal is in this same general area? Is it common to find a single tooth or does that usually mean there is probably more there to be found? It obviously eroded out of this ravine but not sure how to go about locating more other than searching every square inch of the sides of the ravine for anything visible protruding out of the ground & while there isn't much to hide the ground like right now in the winter. It would be a lot of area to cover too, a whole lot!
Just wondering what the odds are of finding single pieces such as a tooth like this & nothing else being in the area. I understand a glacier could have deposited it there & thus would possibly be the only piece of its kind in the area. I'm just hoping the marshy area at the top of the ravine is a hint to a long lived small spring that once might have helped make the ravine area a swampy area way back when & thus with lots of time helped make the ravine as well. If it was once a large marshy area I think chances are very good mastodons visited there & thus could have died there as well. Other than this system of ravines that leads to the river. The rest of the area in this county is very flat farm land.
Most of the walls of the ravine are glacial till material but down lower it gets slightly sandstoneish but not exactly sandstone. A soft sandstone like material, BTW this is in western central Indiana & whole mastodon finds are not all that unusual here.
Opinions? Thoughts? Tips?
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