Weathervane Wednesday ~ An unusual Animal!

I post another in a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New England and across the globe.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are interesting.  Often my readers tip me off to some very unique or unusual weathervanes, too!  If you know a great weather vane near you, let me know if you'd like to have it featured on this blog.

Today's weather vane was photographed in New York State.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #379?  Scroll down to find the answer.

No, this is not an elephant!  You are looking at a mastodon weathervane photographed at the LePage Market in Cohoes, New York by reader Schalene Jenning Dagutis.  According to Schalene "The animal is the Cohoes Mastadon, which was found when blasting to build the Harmony Mill.  The mastadon fossils are at the New York State Museum in Albany." 

The fossil mastodon was excavated in 1866.  Mastodons became extinct over 10,000 years ago.    The Cohoes Mastodon was probably about 8 1/2 feet at the shoulder when it was alive, and lived about 13,000 years ago.  This is the same time period when humans first settled this part of North America. The mastodon fossil has been on exhibit at different locations for 150 years, but in 1998 it was moved to the New York State Museum.  A replica with fur is displayed at the Cohoes public library.

For the truly curious:

From the New York State Museum:

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/research-collections/paleontology/vertebrate-paleontology/collections/cohoes-mastodon

LePage's Market

342 North Mohawk Street

Cohoes, New York

https://www.lepagesmarket.org/  

Schalene Jennings Dagutis's genealogy blog:

http://tangledrootsandtrees.blogspot.com/   

Click here to see the entire collection of Weathervane Wednesday posts!

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~  An unusual Animal!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 5, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/weathervane-wednesday-unusual-animal.html: accessed [access date]).