Daniel Fisher - Bringing Mastodons to Life
Approximately 12,000 years ago, in what is now northern Indiana, a 33-year-old mastodon died from wounds sustained in mortal combat with another male. Buried in a peat bog, the creature’s bones remained undisturbed until 1998, when farmer and businessman Dan Buesching accidentally unearthed part of the skull. Today, thanks to the work of U-M Professor Daniel Fisher and other paleontologists, the skeleton—remarkably preserved and almost nearly complete—is making important contributions to our understanding of life on this planet.
At the request of the Buesching family and colleagues from Indiana University-Purdue at Fort Wayne, Fisher helped supervise the excavation and worked on preserving the remains—particularly the tusks. As he explains, “These incisors, which grow throughout the life of the animal, are an incredible source of information. They can tell us everything from the mean annual temperature to the animal’s age, gender, changing health status, reproductive history, and season of death.”
Fisher adds that excavations such as this one can also contribute to solving an important mystery. “Roughly 10,000 years ago, North America lost about three-quarters of its large mammals,” he says. “By studying skeletal remains like the Buesching Mastodon, we hope to discover the causes for that mass extinction.”
In cooperation with Tech Transfer, the Buesching family entered into a unique agreement with the University of Michigan. Under the terms of the agreement, the University is creating research-quality molds of the skeleton. The resulting casts will be used for scientific and educational purposes, and the Buesching family will receive royalty payments for any cast sold to outside organizations. As Fisher points out, “It&rsquos an excellent way to secure a rare and important scientific record for the public.”
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