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The mastodon statue outside of Helmke Library

In the News

State 'dons official fossil

Our state bird is the cardinal, our flower is the peony and soon Hoosiers will have a state fossil – the mastodon. Indiana's Senate voted 39-6 to approve House Enrolled Act 1013 to make it so. The six senators who voted no didn't offer reasons why they cast their votes, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana.

Already the official mascot of Purdue Fort Wayne, mastodons were celebrated in 2005 with the community art project “Mastodons on Parade.” (The school was then known as Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne.)

Read the story in The Journal Gazette. (subscription required)