In 1929, Boston newspapers ran some unusual articles on the latest acquisition of the Dental Museum. This was no human Tooth, but a mastodon's tusk estimated to be 50,000 years old. Over 11 feet long and weighing 300 pounds, it was one of the largest such specimens ever found. On a trip to Alaska, Adelbert Fernald obtained the tusk from a prospector who discovered it in a bank of the Porcupine River, beyond the Arctic Circle. The mastodon's tusk traveled by dogsled and boat and ultimately found its way to Harvard's Dental Museum. The current whereabouts of the mastodon tusk are, however, unknown. Newspaper clippings from the Boston Globe and the Boston Traveler concerning the acquisition of mastadon tusk by the Dental Museum
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