Handbook N-P - Fulton County Public Library

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[Rochester Sentinel, Saturday, July 3, 1920]
PREHISTORIC BONES FOUND [Fulton County]
MILLION YEARS OLD BONES FOUND
The lower jaw bone and many other parts of the skeleton of what is thought to have been
a mastodon, were unearthed Thursday afternoon, by the A. C. Davisson dredge at work on the
Charles Yankee farm, five miles southeast of Fulton and are now on display in the Sentinel
window.
According to Dr. G. E. Hoffman, who examined the bones, the lower maxilary is one of
the best specimens he ever saw. It weighs about 20 pounds. Practically the entire lower jaw is
there, including two almost perfect teeth and several that had not yet come through.
Million Years Old
Dr. Hoffman places the age of the animal at almost six months, and declares that the
bones may be a million years old, in as much as they were probably buried during the ice period
and deposited here, which the glacier melted, ages ago. The find does not necessarily mean that
the animal once roamed these parts.
Other Bones
The other bones unearthed, four in number, vary in size and weight, but none of them
approach the jaw bone in these particulars.
A number of such bones have been dug up about here in recent years, but it is doubtful if
any more perfect specimens have been found. Many people inspected the aged relics today.
[Rochester Sentinel, Friday, April 4, 1913]
MILLION HEAR OLD BONES A MYSTERY
“What is it” is the queston they all ask when they see the bones of the prehistoric animal
dug up by A. C. Davisson dredge on the Charles Yankee farm south of Fulton. The bones are on
exhibition at the Sentinel office and many of Rochester’s best educated man have been to the
office to examine them.
Not A Mastodon
When the bones were first found, many said that they were from the skeleton of a
mastodon, the ancestor of the elephant, but this theory was later destroyed by E. von Ehrenstein,
who examined the bones. He said that the teeth of a mastodon have conical projections on the side
and a groove down the center. The teeth now on exhibition are about seven inches long and two
wide and are without a groove in the center.
May Be Dinotherium
Several men who examined the jaw bone said that it was probably part of the skeleton of
a Dinotherium Giganteum, an extinct animal of gigantic size whose remains occur in the middle
tertiary. This animal was remarkable for two large tusks set in the lower jaw. The jaw bone of the
skeleton found, supports this belief, as two places are visible where the tusks may have been
attached.
Million Years Old
Dr. Hoffman places the age of the animal at about six months, and declares that the bones
may be a million years old, in as much as they were probably buried during the ice period and
deposited here, when the glacier melted ages ago. The find does not necessarily mean that the
animalonce roamed these parts.
[Rochester Sentinel, Wednesday, April 9, 1913]
ARE FOUND TO BE MAMMOTH BONES
It is part of the skeleton of a mammoth, better known as the wooly elephant. This fact
has been settled as to the origin of the lower jaw and other parts of a skeleton which was dug up
on the farm of Charles Yankee and which is now on exhibition at the Sentinel office.