A GIANT DISCOVERY
THE MASTODON DOWN THE STREET
How cool is this? 2 metro cousins find bone in creek
By Christina Hall Free Press Staff Writer
Eric Stamatin and Andrew Gainariu were doing what 11-year-old boys do — fishing, catching crayfish and gathering sticks and rocks to build a dam at a stream near Eric’s home in Macomb County last June.
But then the pair stumbled upon something that most sixth-graders only dream of — they discovered a 13,000- to 14,000-year-old American mastodon bone.
“I thought it was a very weird rock,” Eric said this week from his Shelby Township home near where they found the bone in a stream near 24 Mile and Dequindre roads.
His cousin Andrew, who lives in Troy and was visiting at the time, said he knew immediately it was an animal bone — something Eric’s dad, an internal medicine doctor, confirmed.
“I thought it was a dinosaur bone,” Andrew said.
The boys were geeked when John Zawiskie, a geologist at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, identified the discovery as that of an axis or neck bone of a mastodon, an elephant-like animal that became extinct 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. “We were very excited,” Eric said. “This doesn’t happen to 11-year-olds to find a bone in a creek. It’s pretty amazing.”
Andrew agreed.
“I think it’s pretty exciting, really,” he said. “Yeah, we found an actual discovery. … This doesn’t happen to kids.”
Zawiskie said that’s what makes this find cool — “sort of right out of the movies.”
“That’s the whole beauty of this thing. Here’s this kid just down the street from his house finding a mastodon,” he said.
Zawiskie said the bone is less than a foot tall and weighs a couple of pounds. He said it is one of two specialized vertebrae that secure the head to the spine. He estimates it came from an adult that stood 8 or 9 feet high at the shoulders and weighed about 6 tons.
The discovery is the fourth record of the American mastodon in Macomb County. Zawiskie said the other discoveries there are: a teeth and jawbone in the Clinton River valley flat; teeth and bones about 4 miles south of Mt. Clemens, and a molar and bones, but he did not have the exact location for that find.
More than 211 mastodons have been found in the southern portion of the Lower Peninsula, including a large find in 2006 at the site of a road construction project in Rochester Hills.
“These things are routinely uncovered in construction projects or by farmers,” Zawiskie said, adding that people doing work in their backyards also may find remains.
He said mastodons — the official state fossil — were in this region after the tundra shifted north and spruce forests abounded, bringing large ani mals. Theories for their extinction, he said, are hunting stresses and climate change.
The mastodon bone found by the boys was in a stream that cuts through sand and gravel of an old glacial lake plain and is near the source of the middle branch of the Clinton River.
Zawiskie and the boys searched the area last month after the geologist was contacted by Eric’s mother, Cristina Stamatin. No additional bones were found.
When the boys brought the find home, Stamatin said, she first thought it was from a cow or sheep.
She said the find has piqued the boys’ interest in science and bones.
“They want to learn more. If it’s not a career, at least it will be a hobby,” she said.
The bone currently is on a shelf in the dining room of Eric’s home.
Zawiskie said the bone is in pretty good shape, but he is expecting the boys to return it to Cranbrook in the next few weeks so he can put fluids on it to ensure it holds together well. Eric and Andrew don’t know what they’re going to do with the bone, which Zawiskie said the institute would be happy to accept as a donation.
“We could sell it on eBay or keep it as a souvenir,” Eric said.
• CONTACT CHRISTINA HALL: CHALL99@FREEPRESS.COM
KATHLEEN GALLIGAN/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Andrew Gainariu, 11, of Troy and cousin Eric Stamatin, 11, of Shelby Township show off the American mastodon bone they found while exploring a creek in June in Shelby Township.
KATHLEEN GALLIGAN/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Eric Stamatin and Andrew Gainariu with the mastodon bone Tuesday. “We were very excited,” Eric said of the discovery. “This doesn’t happen to 11-year-olds to find a bone in a creek. It’s prettyamazing.”
LEARN MORE AT CRANBROOK
To learn more about mastodons, visit the permanent exhibit at Cranbrook Institute of Science or attend arelated program: “Investigating Michigan’s Winter — both Past and Present.” It runs 1-4 p.m. Dec. 26-30 at the institute, 39221 Woodward in Bloomfield Hills.
For information, call 248-645-3200 or go to http://science .cranbrook.edu .
MIGHTY MASTODON
A bone found in Shelby Township is from an American mastodon, which roamed North America until about 10,000 years ago. Mastodons, along with mammoths and modern elephants, are members of the order Proboscidea.
Mammut americanum
Size: About the size of an African elephant; height is 8 to 9 feet; weight is 8,000 to 12,000 pounds Body: Short, stout limbs; skulls not as deep as mammoths Teeth: Cone-shaped to eat brush, trees and swamp plants Time line: Ranges back 3.7 million years; went extinct 10,000 to 11,000 years ago Fun fact: Became the official state fossil of Michigan in 2002
SOURCES: John Zawiskie, geologist at Cranbrook Institute of Science; www.museum.state.il.us
KOFI MYLER/Detroit Free Press
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