Great Lakes Medical Imaging near Buffalo, New York, usually provides 3D images for human patients, but mastodon bones were recently put through its scanners to help a retired curator figure out what caused some of the creature's abnormal features.

Richard Laub has been studying a set of mastodon bones at the Buffalo Museum of Science and came up with the idea to run the 11,000-year-old fossils through a CT scanner. He brought 15 specimens, all wrapped and labeled, to Great Lakes where he was able to see a full picture of each bone's hollowness.

The images will be shown to other scientists who will work together on figuring out if the bones were hallowed by disease or the preservation process.

Get more details on the findings below: