We’ve all had our garages cluttered with all kinds of things from potted plants, bicycles, boxes stacked on boxes, but Nancy Fiddler had her garage’s much needed space occupied by the remains of a 10-foot tall, prehistoric Mastodon since it was first discovered buried on their ranch land in 1997. Everything was intact except the tusks. While the skeleton had been on display for a while at the Oakland Museum of Natural History, it was eventually given back to the Fiddlers. Now Nancy wants to get rid of it after 11 years and where better to do that than on eBay!
If you’re in the market for such a purchase be reading to fork out some serious coin, the minimum bid on this little ancient beauty is $115,000 (USD).
Why? You may ask. Would she be willing to part with such a keepsake? According to Nancy they need to make room for her son’s new passion, the building of sleek hot rods. But, Nancy also has her own guilty pleasure assigned for the space that will be opened by ridding themselves of this relic of Earth’s past — the use of their sauna, which has laid dormant for nearly 4 years. It has been serving as the storage unit for some of the beastie’s bones.
The Fiddlers figure this is the perfect time to put the hairy elephant on the market since Mastodons are getting a lot of press after the release of the new movie “10,000 B.C.” The ancient critters lived from about 15 million years in our past until their mass extinction around 10,000 years ago.
Lending credence to its authenticty and worth is paleontolgist Bruce Hanson, consultant for the Okland museum. “It’s a beautiful specimen,” stated Hanson.
Some members of academia seem upset over the proposed online bidding for such a priceless fossil. “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.”
