One of the most exciting projects I worked on while at the New York State Museum was the restoration of a mastodont. Approximately 11,000 years old, a mastodont is named for its' teeth. In Latin the word mastodont translates into mast: nipple and dont:teeth. Unearthed in 1866 when excavating for a mill building in Cohoes, New York, about two thirds of the bones were recovered including the skull and tusks. I was responsible for restoring the bones, replication and sculpting ones that were missing, and putting the parts together. (Photo on the right from Hudson Valley Magazine: below from the Conservationist.)
