Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1908 — More About the Mastodon Skull. [ARTICLE]

More About the Mastodon Skull.

George E. Ulm came home from Tracy, Lake county, Thursday. He brought home with him two of the mastodon teeth and they are the tines’ specimens we have ever seen, and there can be no mistaking the fact that they are the teeth of the real mastodoif, for they correspond in every way with the description of that extinct animal. One of the teeth found was the one described in the article last week and weighed three 1 pounds. The other is a much larger | tooth and was found later and some distance from the skull. It is a beauty and has the two rows each of five conical projections, and all as smooth as ivory itself. The teeth have the seven roots that are found in the motor teeth of mastodons, although one is broken off. .It weighs 5% pounds. Mr. Ulm found it too much of a task to bring the skull along with him as it weighed almost 100 pounds, so he will ship that to the Republican by freight after he returns home. It Is not often that the tusks of these nimals are found, although they are not supposed to decay, and this is possibly because the animals were killed for the tusks. In an animal the size of the one this must have been it Is not improbable that the tusks were from six to ten feet in length. Of course, Mr. Ulm made a very careful search for them but could find no trace. When the skull arrives It will be placed on exhibition at the Republican office.