More mastodon remains found in Town of Wallkill's hamlet of Scotchtown

A team of SUNY Orange students, supervised by a professor and an instructor, has unearthed more mastodon remains at the same site where a jaw was found in 2024.

For six weeks, the 12 students uncovered the ground, one square meter at a time.

By the end, they had uncovered multiple vertebrae, including the atlas vertebrae, additional jaw fragments and ribs, all believed to have belonged to the same mastodon some 10,000 to 13,000 years ago.

The atlas vertebrae served as the base for the mastodon's skull, bearing its weight and maintaining its upright position, SUNY Orange said in a news release.

A SUNY Orange team uncovered more mastodon remains in the Town of Wallkill.

The students also found a series of smaller pieces of unidentified bones.

The students worked under the supervision of Cory Harris, a professor of anthropology and sociology and chairman of the Behavioral Sciences Department at SUNY Orange, and instructor Anthony Soricelli.

The primary items discovered have been shipped to the New York State Museum in Albany for examination and curation.

In September 2024, a full mastodon jaw bone was uncovered at the same Scotchtown site, on a private residence. A few smaller bone fragments were also found.

More: Discovery of jaw 'another chapter' in Orange County's mastodon history: What's next

The SUNY Orange team on the latest project worked closely with Robert Feranec, director of research and collections at the state museum.

"After working with Bob to excavate the jaw in the fall, I hoped we'd find more remains this summer, but this worked out much better than I could have imagined," Harris said in a statement. "For our students, they have been exposed to a level of experience and expertise that is uncommon at a community college."

New York has been the site of more than 150 mastodon fossil discoveries over the years, and about one-third of them have happened in Orange County.

Mastodons, an ancestor of the modern-day elephant, were similar to mammoths but with shorter legs, a longer body and heavier muscles.

Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record and the Poughkeepsie Journal. Reach him at [email protected].

(This story was updated to add a photo.)

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: More mastodon remains found in Town of Wallkill, NY: What to know