Students Unearth Prehistoric Bones

A group of students from SUNY Plattsburgh recently went digging for mud and came back with some buried treasure. According to a story on WTEN.com, Jason Klein, Zachary Irwin and Jake McAdoo went out to collect mud samples for a class when they unearthed the bones of a 12,000-year-old harbor seal.

After finding that their original dig site was overgrown with plants, students decided to take samples from an old air force base near Lake Champlain. When their shovels hit something hard, the group discovered 15 bones belonging to a prehistoric harbor seal.

The find is certainly significant, in terms of both prehistory and modern day dilemmas: Robert Feranec, Curator of Vertebrate Pathology at the New York State Museum, told WTEN that the bones can help scientists learn about the harbor seal's environment and diet and help them predict how climate change might affect the species. Plus, the bones provide insight into the type of ancient life that inhabited New York State after the Ice Age.

Feranec added that the seal most likely came from the ancient Champlain Sea, which was once home to all kinds of critters from beluga whales to clams to giant, bear-sized beavers.

While upstate New York certainly looks different today, it's pretty cool to imagine the Lake Champlain area overrun with harbor seals and ginormous beavers.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.