Everything about Mastodon totally explained
Mastodons or
Mastodonts (from
Greek μαστός and
οδούς, meaning "
nipple tooth") are members of the
extinct genus Mammut of the order
Proboscidea and form the family Mammutidae; they resembled, but were distinct from, the
woolly mammoth, which belongs to the family
Elephantidae. Mastodons were
browsers, while mammoths were
grazers.
Habitat
Mastodons are thought to have first appeared almost four million years ago. They were native to both Eurasia and North America but the Eurasian species
Mammut borsoni died out approximately three million years ago - fossils having been found in
England,
Germany, the
Netherlands and northern
Greece.
Mammut americanum disappeared from North America about 10,000 years ago, at the same time as most other
Pleistocene megafauna.
Though their habitat spanned a large territory, mastodons were most common in the
ice age spruce forests of the eastern United States, as well as in warmer lowland environments. Their remains have been found as far as 300
kilometers offshore of the northeastern United States, in areas that were dry land during the low
sea level stand of the last ice age. Mastodon fossils have been found in South America; on the Olympic Peninsula of
Washington state, USA (
Manis Mastodon Site); in
Kentucky (particularly noteworthy are early finds in what is now
Big Bone Lick State Park); the
Kimmswick Bone Bed in
Missouri; in Stewiacke,
Nova Scotia,
Canada; in Richland County, Wisconsin; La Grange, Texas; and north of
Fort Wayne,
Indiana, USA.
Description
While mastodons were furry like
woolly mammoths and similar in height at roughly three meters at the shoulder, the resemblance was superficial. They differed from mammoths primarily in the blunt, conical, nipple-like projections on the crowns of their
molars, which were more suited to chewing leaves than the high-crowned teeth mammoths used for grazing; the name
mastodon (or
mastodont) means "
nipple teeth" and is also an obsolete name for their
genus. Their skulls were larger and flatter than those of mammoths, while their skeleton was stockier and more robust. Mastodons also seem to have lacked the undercoat characteristic of mammoths.
Extinction
Recent studies indicate that
tuberculosis may have been partly responsible for the extinction of the mastodon 10,000 years ago.
Another influencing factor to their eventual extinction in America during the late
Pleistocene may have been the presence of
Paleo-indians, which entered the American contient in relatively large numbers 13,000 years ago. Their hunting caused a gradual attrition to the Mastodon and Mammoth populations, siginificant enough that over time the Mastodons were hunted to extinction.
In September 2007, Mark Holley, an underwater
archeologist with the Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve Council who teaches at
Northwestern Michigan College in
Traverse City, Michigan, said that they might have discovered a boulder (3.5 to 4 feet high x 5 feet long) with a prehistoric carving in the
Grand Traverse Bay of
Lake Michigan. The granite rock has markings that resemble a mastodon with a spear in its side. Confirmation that the markings are an ancient
petroglyph will require more evidence.
Current excavations
Current excavations are going on annually at the Hiscock site in Byron, New York, for mastodon and related paleo-Indian artifacts. The site was discovered in 1959 by the Hiscock family while digging a pond with a backhoe; they found a large tusk and stopped digging. The Buffalo Museum of Science has organized the dig since 1983. It has been called one of the richest sites available for mastodon-related artifacts. The site sits on swampland that was covered by Lake Tonowanda, which was a glacier runoff lake formed over 10,000 years ago. It has been confirmed that mastodons would flock there to eat the sodium-rich clay during one of the last great droughts of the paleolithic.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mastodon'.
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