The main part of our field trip was to see this replica of the mastodon that was unearthed locally 12 years ago. The owners of the land donated the cast to Science Central, where it is on display. The real bones are at the Indiana State Museum.
This is Fred. He is one of the most complete mastodon skeletons ever found. Upon the completion of the excavation, the only bones missing were the right front upper leg bone, the left front knee cap, and some toes.
We had a few extra hours to spend at Science Central before heading out to the place where Fred was discovered. Grace, Megan, Kayla, Beau, and Luke worked together to build the arch. They accomplished the task, but it fell before I could capture the picture.
Leah did a great job on scaling this wall. 
From Science Central, we drove out to Buesching's, the location of the dig. The mastodon's skeleton was excavated from this bog about 50 yards behind us.
This is a cast of the leg bone that Mr. Buesching dug up with his excavator.
Then after finding several other bones, including this massive skull, the Buesching family knew they had found something significant. A mastodon excavation team was quickly assembled.
This is Mrs. Buesching's scrapbook page documenting the event. The skull is in the excavator's bucket. (I did get her permission to take the picture.)
A big treat was that an archaeologist, Dr. Sarah Surface-Evans, traveled down from Michigan to speak to our group. She was an archeology student at the time of the excavation and was involved in nearly every aspect of the dig. Here she is showing us tools that would have been used in hunting these large animals. She used an atlatl (spear thrower) in throwing this spear, demonstrating the force that spears would enter their targets when thrown using an atlatl.
From her first-hand experience, she explained the process of the dig: how they dammed up the bog, pumping out the water continually, digging only with their hands so as not to damage any finds, how they determined Fred must have died, and why his remains were even left in the bog to be found many years later. To further take advantage of this beautiful day, we made a stop off at the Zoo, arriving just in time for the sea lion show.
Just this week, we have studied the various species of marsupials, so to be this close to one of them, was amazing.
Bill and Ina, the lions.
Megan and Kayla check out one of the giraffe's neck bones.
~Wee
2 comments:
Lorelei, This is great! You are doing a great job homeschooling; your girls will thank you later. Wish i could join in!
Looks like a fun day and very educational. It's a far cry from what we learned about in school!
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