By Amanda Beck
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -
California resident Nancy Fiddler
has put for sale on eBay
Her family's relationship with the Ice Age relative of the
elephant has run its course.
Fiddler said they need the money an online auction could
bring, and her son would prefer to build hot rod cars in the
space the creature now occupies.
The Fiddlers also would like to use their sauna, which in
the last four years has served as an additional repository for
the huge plastic casts containing the animal's bones.
"We needed a safe, dry place," Fiddler said, explaining why
they chose to sacrifice the sauna. "The mastodon takes
precedence."
Mastodons, which stood 10 feet tall with trunks and tusks,
migrated to North America about 15 million years ago and ranged
all over the continent with saber tooth tigers, giant sloths
and American camels. All met their extinction about 10,000
years ago.
A ranch hand discovered a mastodon tooth on the Fiddler
ranch in northeastern California in 1997. Excavation revealed a
rare, nearly complete mastodon skeleton that included
everything but the tusks.
"It's a beautiful specimen," said paleontological
consultant Bruce Hanson, who helped move the skeleton to the
Oakland Museum of Natural History, where it was on display for
several years.
After the museum made a replica, the Fiddlers moved the
mastodon to the tasting room of a California wine bar. Then it
found its way to their garage.
One paleontologist said he was skeptical that the Fiddlers
would get as much as they want for the mastodon.
"What is it going to do? Sit on someone's mantle?" said
Mark Goodwin of the University of California Museum of
Paleontology. "I would prefer to see it donated to a museum.
This is our fossil heritage."
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
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