Museum buys mastodon bones

The bones were discovered when a pond was being dug.
SALEM -- The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has bought the bones of a mastodon found earlier this year in Butler Township.
The museum announced the purchase recently, noting that the bones will be cleaned and researched. The museum did not say how much it is paying for the bones.
"The mastodon's tusks, skull, teeth and other bones are in good condition," said Dr. Brian Redmond, head of the museum's archaeology department.
Redmond estimated that the bones could be 10,000 to 13,000 years old.
Visit: Museum officials visited the site of the mastodon discovery after receiving a call about the find from Cheryl Mattevi, a geologist at Kent State University's Salem campus.
Excavator Burton Hartley found the creature's 3-foot-long skull in July while digging a pond on the George Jackson property on Tower Road.
Under Mattevi's leadership, a team of KSU Salem faculty, geology graduate students and volunteers removed more than 35 bones from the sediment.
The find included a backbone section, ribs and two tusks.
The museum intends to save and preserve the bones for scientific study.
Students at KSU's regional campus will get an opportunity to clean some of the creature's smaller bones.
Researchers efforts will include determining how the beast died and whether its death was natural or at the hands of ancient hunters seeking food.