Mastodon press 11,000-year-old fossils into 170 vinyl copies
Mastodon have pressed real mastodon bone into vinyl for a new edition of their album Marrow Deep.
The “Bone Dust” edition is limited to 170 copies, according to details reported by Rolling Stone on 9 October 2026. Each LP contains powdered fossil from mastodon teeth that bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders described as 11,000 years old.
Marrow Deep is the band’s ninth studio album. It was released in August through Loma Vista, the label that also handled the storefront sale for the fossil vinyl.
The story starts about 20 years ago. A fan gave the band fossilised mastodon teeth, and Sanders later suggested pressing the material into a record. Loma Vista then paired the group with Waxwork Records to make it work.
Production involved the University of Georgia’s geology department. A geologist there reduced the teeth to powder with a spex mill, a laboratory grinder, and passed the material through a sieve. Band members then visited Waxwork, where they sprinkled the bone dust onto the wax before pressing.
The run stopped at 170 copies because only a finite quantity of bone dust was available. No more can be made from the same source.
Fans could not simply click to buy. Mastodon sold the edition, priced at US$150.00 on the Loma Vista storefront, through a random draw process. The draw was organised via the band’s artist store.
What makes this stand out is the literal link between band name and object. Metal bands issue coloured vinyl and numbered pressings all the time. This one carries prehistoric animal remains in the plastic itself.
