SUNY Orange Investigating Rare Mastodon Find

MIDDLETOWN – SUNY Orange is gaining attention for its role in the rare discovery of a full mastodon jaw in a backyard of an Orange County residence.

Earlier this Fall, an Orange County family uncovered several unknown and unusual items from near the surface of their property, and they brought the items to SUNY Orange for assistance in determining what they might be. They first met with geology professor Anthony Soricelli, who quickly connected them with Dr. Cory Harris, chair of the College’s Behavioral Sciences Department and a professor of anthropology and sociology, who was able to identify the two items as mastodon teeth.

Harris put the family in touch with the New York State Museum, who sent staff to the site for further investigation. Harris joined the museum team to excavate a small area, which yielded a full mastodon jaw and some additional small skeletal remains.

“This process played out exactly as it should have, and became a true partnership between the state and the College,” Harris said. “The residents came to the College with the understanding and expectation that we could help them identify what they’d found, and we were able to connect them with the New York State Museum. They trusted us to give them the proper guidance.

“A find like this doesn’t happen often and I’m excited that the College has had a small role in the process thus far,” Harris added. “I’m hopeful we can further support the state and the family by organizing a summer field experience where we can take some of our students to the site for- a supervised excavation to see what other remains may be located there. What a great opportunity for the College to provide a once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunities for our students.”

This recent discovery is not SUNY Orange’s first experience with mastodon remains. Since the 1980s, the College’s Middletown campus has been the home of “Sugar,” a mastodon skeleton found in 1972 near the Warwick-Chester border that was donated to the people of Orange County by the New York State Archaeological Association. The Sugar Loaf mastodon (mastodon americanus) greets all students as they enter the Bio-Tech building’s main entrance. The skeleton belonged to a 20-foot long male that possessed an unusual tusk in the lower jaw and stood almost nine feet tall at the pelvis. “Sugar” has been radiocarbon dated at 7910 B.C. (plus or minus 225 years).