Collections Curator Alex Forist of Grand Rapids points to the Dentin or outer layer of a mastodon tooth at the Community Archives and Research Center located at 223 Washington St. SE in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, October 8, 2013. The Grand Rapids charitable organization In The Image, gave the mastodon tooth and what is believed to be a mastodon tusk to the Grand Rapids Museum after discovering them in a box of donated goods. The tusk and tooth which is a third permanent molar will be researched, catalogued and photographed as well as used for educational purposes with children by the museum. According to Forist the tooth is between 12,000 and 15,000 years old. (Andrew Kuhn | MLive.com)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Being a charity, intake of highly random donations goes with the territory for the folks at In The Image. But getting 12,000 year-old mastodon parts in a donation box is a new one.

"At first, it looked like broken parts of something," said Jay Starkey, director of In The Image, a Christian charity at 1823 South Division Ave. that funnels donated clothing and shoes to low-income city residents.

Upon further inspection, the broken parts obtained during a day of pick-ups around Grand Rapids in July turned out to be pieces of an extinct elephant-like species that roamed North America more than 10,000 years ago.

After scratching their heads for a bit, the charity’s first call was to the Grand Rapids Public Museum, which is formally adding the artifacts to its educational collection this month.

The museum already has quite a few mastodon parts in both its general collection of artifacts that go on display, and its educational collection of pieces that are loaned to educators for use as a learning tool in schools.

One of the bones, a tooth, is broken into two parts and is covered in some kind of lacquer. It’s about the size of a loaf of bread.

The second piece, a tusk, also covered in lacquer, is hollowed at one end, and the museum artifact description notes that it was likely carved at one point. The piece, thought to be the end of a tusk, is about 10-inches long.

Although the tusk is believed to be from a mastodon, that's not been confirmed. Both pieces are estimated to be anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 years old.

Pieces of mastodons, which included Michigan within their range before extinction, pop onto the museum’s radar from time to time, but “this is kind of an oddball way for something to come in,” said Tim Priest, collections manager.

Starkey said it’s not the first odd item the charity has come across. Finding drugs is not uncommon, he said. The charity once got a painting worth about $5,000 that was also donated to the museum. And there was that one time the organization got an urn with someone’s ashes inside.

“That was probably the weirdest thing,” he said.

Because the box was not inspected on pickup, Starkey said the charity was unable to determine with certainty which house it came from. The crew stopped at about 8 that day, he said. They think it came from a house near Ada.

Starkey has endless questions about the provenance of the tooth and tusk. Who owned it? Was it dug up? Bought by a collector? Is it from Michigan or elsewhere?

“I’d love to find out where this was from and the history behind it,” he said.

Garret Ellison covers business, government and breaking news for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram