Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Saturday, June 18, 1983
Skeleton of mastodon
found near Kalamazoo
By KAREN TENSA
A Universityscientist and researchers
from Western Michigan Univeraity are
digging up the remains of a prehistoric
animal found buried beneath a western
Michigan sod farm.
The tusk of a mastodon, an elephant-
like prehistoric mammal, . was
discovered two weeks ago by the owner
of a farm near Kalamazoo. University
Paleontologist David Fisher, an expert
on mastodons, said the find is "very
important" since scientists don't know
why the mastodon died out ap-
proximately 10,000 yers ago.
"CAREFUL digging and analysis of
this site can help in finding out if human
hunting was involved in the extinction
of the mastodon," said Fisher, an
assistant professor in the University's
geological sciences department.
At one time, paleontologists were in-
terested mainly in assembling the
mastodon skeletons they found. But
now, Fisher and other researchers are
using the skeletons to determine how
the animal died.
So far, the researchers have unear-
thed the skull and jaws; some of the
neck and back vertebrae; part of the
ribs and feet; and both of the shoulder
blades.
"WE WON'T be able to tell for cer-
tain if the animal was slaughtered until
we find the pelvis and more of the back
vertebrae," said Fisher, since knife
marks on these parts will indicate if the
animal was butchered.
As skeletal parts are discovered, they
are shipped to Western Michigan
University, where they are cleaned and
preserved to prevent their
deterioration from exposure to the air.
Western Michigan University An-
thropologist Elizabeth Garland is over-
seeing the excavation of the site.
The skeleton's final home has not
been determined - the farm's owner,
Western Michigan, and the University
will make the decision jointly.
The University's Exhibit Museum
already has a complete mastodon
skeleton in its collection. In addition a
smaller exhibit in the museum's rotun-
da displays a mastodon found in Ann
Arbor that shows evidence of human
butchering.
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"Bravo for Zeffirelli's 'La Traviata'
you will leave dazzled down to your socks. .. .
Rex Reed, N.Y.Post
"Franco Zeffirelli's 'La Traviata' is not only a
total triumph but the best filmed opera ever made."
-Bernard Drew, Gannett Newspapers
"La Traviata' ... a personal triumph for director
Zeffirelli. It's not to be missed."
Vincent Canby, New York Tirnes
IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press International reports
State higher edueation budget
passes House of Representatives
LANSING - The 1983-84 budget for higher education as approved by the
House Thursday includes more generous funding for small colleges and less
money for private schools than the version approved by the Senate.
The House approved Senate-passed budgets for higher education, com-
munity colleges and the Department of Education.
The House higher education bill retains the Senate-passed 9 percent hike
for the state's three biggest schools, the University, Michigan State Univer-
sity and Wayne State University.
The House approved a 8.5 percent hike for small colleges, however, in-
stead of the 7.5 percent passed by the Senate. The extra money comes from
funds the Senate had allocated for private college students.
State to review waste storage
LANSING - Michigan will voluntarily review the question of high-level
nuclear waste storage in an effort to keep the federal government from for-
cing a decision upon it, a health official said yesterday.
The review by a special task force named by Gov. James Blanchard could
have the effect of keeping a controversial high-level radioactive waste dump
out of the U.P's granite formations rather than enchancing the state's chan-
ces of having a disposal site forced upon it, said Lee Jager of the state
Department of Public Health.
"If we were to just sit back and wait and then have any special concerns,
we lose our opportunity," said Jager, who is heading the task force of seven
state agencies and a variety of private groups.
MX protesters detained at base
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Air force officials detained 13
people, including activist Daniel Ellsberg, who entered the base yesterday in
an effort to halt the first test-launch of the MX missile.
The protest was unsuccessful, however, as the Air Force was able to com-
plete the launching of the MX, late yesterday afternoon.
to tne military we seem almost scatterbrained, yet it's working," said
Vandenberg Action Coalition member Susan Komisarup. "It's almost
amazing to think that a handful of activists is running around in the bushes in
their blue jeans outsmarting the military."
An Air Force security lieutenant, who asked that he not be identified, said
Ellsberg was among those detained yesterday. Ellsberg is a former gover-
nment analyst who leaked the top-secret Pentagon Papers about the Viet-
nam War to the press in 1971.
"The protest is a success because we wanted the world to know that this
government cannot test first-strike weapons without having to arrest
American citizens," Ellsberg was quoted as saying by Cathy Ryan, a
spokeswoman for the Greenpeace organization involved in the protest.
Pope urges return of Solidarity
WARSAW, Poland - Pope John Paul II bluntly told Poland's military
leader yesterday the banned Solidarity union should be reinstated, and
Solidarity supporters responded with a second night of anti-government
marches.
The pontiff, his journey home fast becoming a triumph for the outlawed
iabor movement, also won government agreement for a meeting with
Solidarity chief Lech Walesa.
"The meeting is taking place at the will of our guests," said government
spokesman Jerzy Urban.
A government source said officials had been "scared" by the huge pro-
Solidarity demonstrations that erupted Thursday after the pope's arrival for
his eight-day visit, and by the bluntness of his remarks against the martial-
law regime declared in communist Poland 1/ years ago.
Face to face with Communist Party leader Wojciech Jaruzelski in War-
saw's Belvedere Palace, the pontiff told the general "I do not stop hoping"
that the 1980 agreements recognizing Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first in-
dependent trade union, "will gradually be put into effect."
Italian police arrest 425 in
organized crime crack down
NAPLES, Italy - In a nationwide crackdown on organized crime, police
said yesterday they arrested 425 people including a Roman Catholic priest, a
nun, a television quiz show host and several local politicians.
Those arrested are suspected members or supporters of the Camorra, a
powerful group of criminal gangs similar to the Sicilian Mafia. Warfare
between the gangs has claimed 106 lives in Naples this year.
All suspects were charged with drug smuggling, defrauding the state, and.
"illegal association," a catch-all charge Italian police use against organized
crime suspects.
More than 10,000 paramilitary police and special agents made the arrests
in coordinated raids in Naples, Rome, Milan, Venice, Bologna and 21 other
cities throughout Italy Thursday night and early yesterday, police said.
The chief state prosecutor in Naples, Francesco Cedrangolo, said more
than 900 warrants had been issued, including 337 served to those already in
prison on other charges.
A FRANCO
ZEFFIRELLI FILM
Giuseppe Verdi's
La
Traviata
(G)
Sat. Sun - 1:30 3:30 5:30 7:30 9:30