FOR RELEASE:  September 17, 2008

 

 

New Mastodon Discovery Dig Site Completed at Stage Nature Center

 

 

(TROY, MI) – The Nature Center is proud to announce the completion of its Mastodon Discovery Dig Site, a new attraction that interprets the Adams Road Mastodon discovered in 2006 by a road construction crew just a few miles from the Nature Center.

 

Surrounding the dig site is a large mural showing Troy as it was 10,000 years ago with mastodons, a giant beaver and a large moose in a bog area.

 

“The dig is completely interactive with a rib cage and hip bones that children can crawl through,” Nature Center Manager Stacey Yankee said.  “A really cool feature is the recycled tire rubber used as soil that the children can actually dig in.  There are many different fossils hidden underneath the soil for discovering.”

 

Included in the dig are brushes for the children to use to find the fossils, Yankee added. 

 

The American mastodon was a shaggy haired elephant-like animal that roamed Oakland County at the end of the last glacial period, before becoming extinct roughly 10,000 years ago.

 

The Nature Center is located at 6685 Coolidge Highway in Troy.  For more information, call 248.524.3567.

 

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