“Fossil bones from the same animal are rarely found together in our area,” Houde wrote. What’s more, Stegomastodon fossils are extremely fragile, despite the animal’s behemoth size.
“We’re really, really grateful that (the Sparks family) contacted us, because if they had not done that, if they had tried to do it themselves, it could have just destroyed the specimen,” Houde told the New York Times. “It really has to be done with great care and know-how.”
After several months, Houde and his team finally got permission from the landowner to dig on the property — under the condition the site remain a secret, according to a university news release. In May, Houde and a team began the week-long, painstaking work of digging up the fossil. The collagen in the bones had long since decomposed, so the fossils “can easily disintegrate under their own weight before your very eyes as soon as the sediments that cradle and support them are cleaned away,” Houde wrote. Because of that, the excavation required exposing parts of the fossil, little by little, and allowing it to fully dry before applying a hardener.
Little by little, they unearthed a nearly complete skull, only missing a tusk.
“It’s just been very exciting,” Jude’s mother, Michelle Sparks, told the news station. “Especially for the boys because every child dreams of finding bones and them being actually old.”