Exhibit preparator Mike Cherney makes no bones about his work readying a male mastodon skeleton for unveiling last weekend at the Exhibit Museum of Natural History. The 9-foot tall male mastodon will join a female skeleton already in place at the museum. For the exhibit's May 21 public opening, Cherney prepares the skeleton for the re-attachment of the upper skull and tusks to the animal's spinal column. The American mastodon became Michigan's state fossil in 2002. (Photo by Dan Erickson)