This past Friday (August 12, 2022) UMMP staff member Scott Beld and paleontologist Cory Redman of the Grand Rapids Public Museum performed a salvage excavation of a juvenile mastodon on the Kent County-Newaygo County border in west Michigan. These remains were encountered Thursday afternoon during culvert replacement by the Kent and Newaygo County Drain Commissions. The bones were concentrated in a small 4 by 4 meter area. Over a 12 hour period, Beld, Redman, Grand Rapids Public Museum volunteers and local volunteers exposed and documented the find. The remains of the Clapp mastodon are being donated to the Grand Rapids Public Museum by the landowners and will be studied in a collaboration between UMMP and the Grand Rapids Public Museum.
