80,000-year-old mastodon star of newest exhibit at Halifax's Museum of Natural History

Bones of Mastodon discovered 30 years ago It was 30 years ago when workers at the National Gypsum Mine in Milford, N.S. discovered bones of Mastodon.

A new exhibit that is larger than humankind is making its way to the Museum of Natural History in Halifax.

"Age of the Mastodon" opens to the public on Saturday and is sure to have you looking up – way up.

"I think for many visitors who come to the exhibit, they're going to see the cast of the mastodon – a full-size cast made in Trenton, Ont., and brought here to the museum," said Jeff Gray, the curator of visitor experience and exhibits at the Museum of Natural History. "But there's so much more to see in this exhibit."

The exhibit will feature a number of mastodon artifacts that were found in Nova Scotia, including some never-before-seen 80,000-year-old mastodon bones.

It also tells stories about the giant mammals, including what it was like when they were alive, what Nova Scotia was like during that time, and some of the factors that led to the demise of them.

Gray says the bones were discovered three decades ago in the Milford Gypsum Quarry. Since then, they have been safely stored away at the museum, available only to researchers.

"The Nova Scotia Museum got a phone call from the National Gypsum Quarry where they had just found some tusks and large bones while they were cleaning out an ancient sinkhole near Milford," explained Gray.

"So that was 30 years ago that the museum started a large project and worked for multiple months – about eight or nine months – to collect and preserve the bones of this 80,000-year-old mastodon."

Also featured in the exhibit are items from the "Mastodon Mud Project" – where four tonnes of mud from the Milford mastodon dig were sent to 300 Nova Scotia schools.

Students were then tasked with going through the debris, where they found small specimens, including a rare, soft-body painted turtle hatchling, which is now at the Nova Scotia Museum.

"All of that material was examined by students all over the province; they picked out all the small shells and all the little bits of bones and spruce cones," said Gray. "And some of those really exceptional fossils are on display as part of this exhibit."

The "Age of the Mastodon" exhibit is not only for those in the Halifax area, it will also be travelling around Nova Scotia.

"Both in the full form that you see here in Halifax... but also, we are working on developing some smaller mastodon exhibits that get shared to smaller communities that don't often have the opportunity to see something as great as Age of the Mastodon," said Gray.