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Mastodon skeleton up for auction on eBay

A Northern California couple has put a 3-million-year-old mastodon skeleton up for auction.

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Jennifer Guevin was a managing editor at CNET, overseeing the ever-helpful How To section, special packages and front-page programming. As a writer, she gravitated toward science, quirky geek culture stories, robots and food. In real life, she mostly just gravitates toward food.
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Jennifer Guevin

How much is that mastodon in the window? About $115,000, not including shipping.

Odd as it may sound, a Northern California couple has put a 3-million-year-old mastodon skeleton up for auction on eBay. A ranch hand on the Fiddler family's property, which is east of Mount Shasta, found a tooth from the animal in 1997, according to the eBay item listing. Roger Fiddler then had a paleontologist come out to identify the tooth, and a partial excavation revealed a nearly complete skeleton (The animal is missing its tusks).

The mastodon has taken an unusual path since then. It spent about three years at the Oakland Museum of California before being placed in the tasting room of a wine bar, according to Reuters. Now it resides in the Fiddlers' garage, where it seems to have overstayed its welcome.

The Fiddlers have decided to part with the rare specimen. It was just taking up too much room, Nancy Fiddler told Reuters. That, and they wanted to be able to use their sauna, which has been housing some of the beast's bones for years.