I had a dog growing up that loved to dig holes in the backyard to bury all of his treasures. While my dog loved it, it drove my parents crazy. We always used to joke that when something went missing, it just mean that it had been buried in the backyard.
Take a look at your own backyard. How do you know that some crazy secret isn't buried out there waiting to discovered, like an entire secret hideaway?
Daniel LaPoint, Jr. of Bellevue, MI has been digging and excavating dirt sites for over 20 years in his job as a professional contractor. He's seen a couple of strange things buried over the years, but a few months ago, he found the strangest thing buried he'd ever found. He also says it was the most fun he'd ever had at work.
Daniel and his neighbor, Eric Witzke, had been digging for four days in Eric's backyard when they noticed an off-white, rigid object sticking out of the earth: a bone.
They initially thought they had found dinosaur bones, and they weren't exactly far off…
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The initial rib bone they found led to a four-foot-long skeleton, plus dozens of other bones from the same creature. From the size and condition of the bones, they knew without a doubt this was a prehistoric animal's remains.
They then called professors from the University of Michigan's paleontology program, who informed them that they had found the remains of a 37-year-old male mastodon.
The mastodon is a prehistoric relative to the modern elephant. The bones they discovered are probably 10,000–14,000 years old. The experts at the University of Michigan should soon be able to narrow the age down to within a 200-year time frame.
The mastodon resembled the wooly mammoth, but was usually shorter and bulkier. During their time on Earth, they were primarily located in modern North America. At least 330 other mastodon skeletons have been found in Michigan.
They could sell these bones for thousands of dollars on the open market, but both men want the bones to be given to research. They will soon be the property of UM's paleontology program and museum, but before that happens, Daniel is taking the bones aroun
"Once these things go to the museum and get crated up, you're not going to get to touch them again. It's over with and I was that kid who wanted to touch that thing on the other side of the glass," said LaPoint. "All the kids got to pick them up and hold them. Some kids, it was life-changing for them. To change one kid's life because they got to touch it, I think, is an incredible opportunity."
They both plan to keep a few smaller bones for themselves to pass on to their next of kin, stating that the memory of finding them will be their biggest treasure.
Daniel says: "The scientific value is really the new perspective, the new information, that specimens like these can bring…Finding them was very, very cool. You know, after time goes by and you have the bones it wears off, the excitement. Digging and finding the bones for the first time, it's not something that can be replicated. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
They found 42 bones in total. This includes rib bones, a leg, hip bones, one shoulder, the base of a tusk, and pieces of the animal's vertebrae.
Take a look in your backyard tonight. Maybe you should grab a shovel. You never know what's out there...
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