Boy finds Mastodon tooth in grandparents' backyard

BIRCH RUN, Mich. (WEYI) — When Owen Vettraino of birch run grows up he wants be a builder and create large skyscrapers, but his goals may change due to what he found beneath the ground.

Owen was riding four wheelers with is cousin at his grandparents’ house last weekend when he saw something strange near the pond, he thought he found a dinosaur bone.

It was dad who figured out what it was a mastodon tooth.

A mastodon was mammal that resembles an elephant.

Owen’s mom did some digging of her own on the internet and then reached out to University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology, who confirmed it was a mastodon tooth.

According to U of M, it appears to be an upper tooth and is 11,000 to 13,000 years old.

The school plans to search the area where Owen found the tooth next week.