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Fred the Mastodon Video!
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1/25/2013 - Fred the Mastodon was unveiled Thurs. Jan 24 in an evening ceremony at the Indiana State Museum. He is on display to the public in the Nina Mason Pulliam Gallery at the entrance of The Age of Ice exhibit on Level 1.
Click on the image below to see a time-release video of the mounting process.
Click on the image below to build your own mastodon, courtesy of IndyStar.com.
This fall, the mastodon will be the centerpiece of a new exhibit, Indiana’s Ice Age Giants: The Mystery of Mammoths and Mastodons, presented by IMI.
About Fred
 Fred is Indiana State Museum’s most complete skeleton of a mastodon and one of the most complete skeletons in the Midwest. Dan Buesching discovered a 9-foot tusk in 1998, when he was digging peat moss on his family’s farm — Buesching Peat Moss & Mulch — near Fort Wayne.
Buesching reported the find to the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne. Faculty, students and volunteers excavated the skeleton, which was entombed in soil muck that was once a prehistoric lake.
The skeleton found its permanent home at the Indiana State Museum in 2006. The mastodon is named after Fred Buesching, Dan Buesching’s grandfather and founder of the family business.
Quick facts about Fred
• About 80 percent of the full skeleton was recovered in Fort Wayne.
• Fred weighed about 3 tons.
• The skull is about 250 pounds.
• The lower jaw weighs about 80 pounds.
• Each tusk weighs 100 pounds.
• Mounted, Fred is about 9 feet tall.
• Bone analysis through radiocarbon dating shows that Fred is more than 13,000-years-old.
Exhibiting the bones
In order to present the remains, the mastodon is mounted on a metal frame customized and crafted by the museum’s mountmaker and sculptor Mike Smith.
Funding
Fred's assembly was supported by the LDI 100th Anniversary Celebration Cultural Partnership Gift Program and donors who purchased mastodon bones starting from $50 for small bones to the $20,000 skull, which was purchased by members of the Buesching family. (Bones are still available for sale here.)
About mastodons
Often confused with the woolly mammoth, mastodons are an older species. Scientists think they originated in Africa 35 million years ago and entered North America about 15 million years ago. Both animals were prevalent during the Ice Age in Indiana. Though the mammoth was taller, the mastodon was a bulkier animal.
Mastodons in Indiana
The Indiana State Museum has mastodon and mammoth remains from more than 28 localities around Indiana; more sites than any other museum in the Midwest.
“What makes Fred so significant is that more than 80 percent of the skeleton has been discovered, and the bones – even the intricate feet bones – were largely intact,” said Ronald Richards, paleontology curator at the Indiana State Museum.
Indiana also has a long history of exporting mastodon bones, which can be seen in museums throughout the country.
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About Indiana State Museum
The Indiana State Museum is located in White River State Park in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. It is Indiana’s museum for science, art and culture, offering a place where you can celebrate, investigate, remember, learn and take pride in Indiana’s story in the context of the broader world. Even the building is a showcase of the best Indiana has to offer in architecture, materials and sculpture. Visit www.indianamuseum.org.
*For more behind-the-scenes information about Fred and the building process, please visit our blog here.
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