EVERYBODY LOVES A MAMMOTH-COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WITH BIG BONES AND BIG DIGS

Nothing grabs attention like a big fossil find. In Indiana, deep in the heart of the Midwest, the big fossil finds are usually those of ice age animals. Chances are often pretty good that they’re from a mammoth or a mastodont. Since the earliest recorded discovery in 1817 of a mastodont, over 400 remains of mammoths and mastodonts have turned up. Most of these are single elements, but Indiana has had its fair share of partial to nearly complete skeletons unearthed. In fact, many of the iconic mounts throughout the country have come from Indiana, including the mammoth at the American Museum of Natural History and the mastodont at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The bleed of skeletons out of the state slowed in 1980 with the Indiana State Museum’s first full-scale excavation. Counting that dig and two earlier, the museum has excavated or salvaged 18 ice age proboscidian graveyards and recorded dozens more discrete elements.

The Indiana State Museum’s plan to mount a large-scale exhibit celebrating mammoths and mastodonts got serious in 2011 with the initiation of an evaluation surveying which aspects the public most wanted to experience. Seeing real bones and experiencing an excavation were two top answers. That, with the exhibit team’s wish to convey the surprising abundance of animals and what scientists learn from bones all led to the exhibit’s final form.