Alton Dooley

Alton Dooley

May 20, 2016

Group 6 Copy 29
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Final stretch, and another California mastodon

We're down to our last few hours, and while we haven't yet reached our goal, things are looking good and I'm optimistic that our efforts will be successful. I've been reaching out to our target museums and already have firm dates for visits to several museums in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Wyoming. Once the plans are all set, I'll be posting a note here, and providing updates throughout the trip.

The photo above is from a California mastodon in the Western Science Center collections, but one that's not from Diamond Valley Lake. Instead this specimen was found in Temecula, about 20 miles southwest of Hemet. It includes the 2nd and 3rd molars, allowing us to get measurements for inclusion in our project. And it has the long, narrow teeth we've come to expect from California mastodons. You can read more about this specimen at https://valleyofthemastodon.wordpress.com/2016/05/...

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported our project! If you haven't yet donated, please do so, and if you have and can afford more, please consider increasing your contribution. The more we raise, the more data we can collect!

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About This Project

American mastodons lived all across North America during the Ice Age. Paleontologists long suspected that western mastodons differed in subtle ways from eastern ones, and our initial data suggest they may have been distinctive in size and tooth proportions. We plan to examine various museum collections to build a robust database of mastodon measurements, allowing us to document regional population differences and helping us understand ecosystem variation and animal dispersal during the Ice Age.

Blast off!

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