In Scotchtown, about 70 miles northwest of New York City, one couple came upon an unusual and thrilling paleontological find in their backyard.

The mastodon jaw and some other bone fragments were found in late September in a backyard near Scotchtown, New York.

When a homeowner in New York was recently doing yardwork and stumbled upon something in the dirt, they initially thought it was just an old baseball — but it turned out to be part of a mastodon jaw. After further digging,