American mastodon
Encyclopedia
The American mastodon is an extinct
North American proboscidea
n that lived from about 3.7 million years ago until about 10,000 BC. It was the last surviving member of the mastodon
family. Fossil finds range from present-day Alaska
and New England
in the north, to Florida
, southern California
, and as far south as Honduras
and El Salvador
. Its main habitat was cold spruce
woodlands, and it is believed to have browsed in herds.
(Mammuthus primigenius) in appearance, with a thick coat of shaggy hair. A few skeletons have been found with the fur still attached; examination of the hair suggests that mastodons lacked the undercoat characteristic of mammoths.
It was about 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height at the shoulder, also similar to woolly mammoths.
However, there are number of significant skeletal differences between mastodons and mammoths. Mastodons' teeth differ dramatically from those of members of the elephant family; they had blunt, conical, nipple-like projections on the crowns of their molar
s, 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 are larger and flatter than those of mammoths, while their skeleton is stockier and more robust.
The tusk
s of the American mastodon sometimes exceeded five metres in length; they curved upwards, but less dramatically than those of the woolly mammoth. Young males had vestigial lower tusks that were lost in adulthood. However, it has been proven that female mastodons had lower pairs of tusks. The tusks were probably used to break branches and twigs, although some evidence suggests males may have used them in mating challenges; one tusk is often shorter than the other, suggesting that, like humans and modern elephants, mastodons may have had laterality
. Examination of fossilized tusks revealed a series of regularly spaced shallow pits on the underside of the tusks. Microscopic examination showed damage to the dentin
under the pits. It is theorized that the damage was caused when the males were fighting over mating rights. The curved shape of the tusks would have forced them downward with each blow, causing damage to the newly forming ivory at the base of the tusk. The regularity of the damage in the growth patterns of the tusks indicates that this was an annual occurrence, probably occurring during the spring and early summer.But are there killers
Though their habitat spanned a large territory, American 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 186 miles (300 km) 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 on the Olympic Peninsula
of Washington, U.S. (Manis Mastodon Site
), in Kentucky
(particularly noteworthy are early finds in what is now Big Bone Lick State Park
); the floodplain of the East Branch of the DuPage River, near Glen Ellyn, Illinois; the Kimmswick Bone Bed
in Missouri
; in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia
, Canada
; at a number of sites in New York State; in Richland County, Wisconsin (Boaz mastodon
); La Grange
, Texas
; Southern Louisiana
; north of Fort Wayne, Indiana
; Savannah, Georgia
; and Johnstown, Ohio
, U.S.
of the Pleistocene megafauna
. However more recent radiocarbon dates have been found, such as 5200 BC in Seneca
, Michigan
, 5140 BC in Utah
, 4150 BC in Washtenaw
, Michigan
, 4080 BC in Lapeer
, Michigan.
Recent studies indicate that tuberculosis
was common in late Pleistocene
American mastodons, and it has been suggested that this could have contributed to their extinction 10,000 years ago. However, it is not considered plausible that the disease could have caused the extinction on its own.
Another factor contributing to their eventual extinction in America during the late Pleistocene
may have been the presence of Paleo-Indians, who entered the American continent and expanded to relatively large numbers 13,000 years ago. Their hunting caused a gradual attrition of the mastodon and mammoth populations, significant enough that over time the mastodons may have been hunted to extinction. Analysis of tusks of mastodons from the American Great Lakes region
over a span of several thousand years prior to their extinction in the area shows a trend of declining age at maturation; this is contrary to what one would expect if they were experiencing stresses from an unfavorable environment, but is consistent with a reduction in intraspecific competition that would result from a population being reduced by human hunting.
In September 2007, Mark Holley, an underwater archaeologist 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 (1.2 m) high x 5 feet (1.5 m) 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.
, related to the proboscidean family Elephantidae
(mammoths and elephants). The common name "Mastodon" derives from a genus named to describe various extinct members of proboscideans, Mastodon (Cuvier) is not currently used. The assignment of the taxon to Mammut, a name that preceded Cuvier's description, met with resistance and authors sometimes applied "Mastodon americanus" as an informal name. Common names for the species have sometimes been "ludicrous and misleading ... The Great American Incognitum. The Leviathan Missourium, The Carnivorous Elephant, Ohio Incognitum, Elephas americanus, a Behemoth, The Pseudelephant, Le Grande Mastodonte, Mastodon giganteus and many others".
. The band Mastodon
take their name from the animal. The Black Power Ranger in Mighty Morphing Power Rangers (Zyuranger in Japan) used the Mastodon as his Zord.
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
North American proboscidea
Proboscidea
Proboscidea is a taxonomic order containing one living family, Elephantidae, and several extinct families. This order was first described by J. Illiger in 1881 and encompasses the trunked mammals...
n that lived from about 3.7 million years ago until about 10,000 BC. It was the last surviving member of the mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
family. Fossil finds range from present-day Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
in the north, to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, southern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and as far south as Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
and El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
. Its main habitat was cold spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
woodlands, and it is believed to have browsed in herds.
General
The American mastodon resembled a woolly mammothWoolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
(Mammuthus primigenius) in appearance, with a thick coat of shaggy hair. A few skeletons have been found with the fur still attached; examination of the hair suggests that mastodons lacked the undercoat characteristic of mammoths.
It was about 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height at the shoulder, also similar to woolly mammoths.
However, there are number of significant skeletal differences between mastodons and mammoths. Mastodons' teeth differ dramatically from those of members of the elephant family; they had blunt, conical, nipple-like projections on the crowns of their molar
Molar (tooth)
Molars are the rearmost and most complicated kind of tooth in most mammals. In many mammals they grind food; hence the Latin name mola, "millstone"....
s, which were more suited to chewing leaves than the high-crowned teeth mammoths used for grazing; the name mastodon (or mastodont) means "nipple
Nipple
In its most general form, a nipple is a structure from which a fluid emanates. More specifically, it is the projection on the breasts or udder of a mammal by which breast milk is delivered to a mother's young. In this sense, it is often called a teat, especially when referring to non-humans, and...
teeth" and is also an obsolete name for their genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
. Their skulls are larger and flatter than those of mammoths, while their skeleton is stockier and more robust.
Tusks
Tusk
Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth, usually but not always in pairs, that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canines, as with warthogs, wild boar, and walruses, or, in the case of elephants and narwhals, elongated incisors...
s of the American mastodon sometimes exceeded five metres in length; they curved upwards, but less dramatically than those of the woolly mammoth. Young males had vestigial lower tusks that were lost in adulthood. However, it has been proven that female mastodons had lower pairs of tusks. The tusks were probably used to break branches and twigs, although some evidence suggests males may have used them in mating challenges; one tusk is often shorter than the other, suggesting that, like humans and modern elephants, mastodons may have had laterality
Laterality
Laterality is the preference that most humans show for one side of their body over the other. Examples include right-handedness or left-footedness. It may also apply to other animals, or to plants.- Human laterality :...
. Examination of fossilized tusks revealed a series of regularly spaced shallow pits on the underside of the tusks. Microscopic examination showed damage to the dentin
Dentin
Dentine is a calcified tissue of the body, and along with enamel, cementum, and pulp is one of the four major components of teeth. Usually, it is covered by enamel on the crown and cementum on the root and surrounds the entire pulp...
under the pits. It is theorized that the damage was caused when the males were fighting over mating rights. The curved shape of the tusks would have forced them downward with each blow, causing damage to the newly forming ivory at the base of the tusk. The regularity of the damage in the growth patterns of the tusks indicates that this was an annual occurrence, probably occurring during the spring and early summer.But are there killers
Distribution
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
forests of the eastern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as well as in warmer lowland environments. Their remains have been found as far as 186 miles (300 km) offshore of the northeastern United States, in areas that were dry land during the low sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
stand of the last ice age. Mastodon fossils have been found on the Olympic Peninsula
Olympic Peninsula
The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...
of Washington, U.S. (Manis Mastodon Site
Manis Mastodon Site
The Manis Mastondon site is the site of an archaeological dig on the Olympic Peninsula near Sequim, Washington, USA. During the dig, the remains of an American mastodon was recovered which had a projectile made of antler embedded in its rib...
), in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
(particularly noteworthy are early finds in what is now Big Bone Lick State Park
Big Bone Lick State Park
Big Bone Lick State Park is located at Big Bone in Boone County, Kentucky. It is located on Beaver Road and between the communities of Beaverlick and Rabbit Hash. The name of the park comes from the Pleistocene megafauna fossils found there. The mammoths and other creatures are believed to have...
); the floodplain of the East Branch of the DuPage River, near Glen Ellyn, Illinois; the Kimmswick Bone Bed
Mastodon State Historic Site
Mastodon State Historic Site is an archaeological and paleontological site in Imperial, Missouri, containing the Kimmswick Bone Bed. Bones of mastodons and other now-extinct animals were first found here in the early 19th century...
in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
; in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
; at a number of sites in New York State; in Richland County, Wisconsin (Boaz mastodon
Boaz mastodon
The Boaz mastodon is the skeleton of a mastodon found near Boaz, Wisconsin in 1897. A fluted quartzite spear point found near the Boaz mastodon suggests that humans hunted mastodons in southwestern Wisconsin.-History:...
); La Grange
La Grange, Texas
La Grange is a city in Fayette County, Texas, near the Colorado River. The population was 4,478 at the 2000 census. The 2006 estimated population was 4,645. But a 2010 census estimated that the city had a population of 4,923...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
; Southern Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
; north of Fort Wayne, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
; Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
; and Johnstown, Ohio
Johnstown, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,440 people, 1,396 households, and 932 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,643.0 people per square mile . There were 1,453 housing units at an average density of 694.0 per square mile...
, U.S.
Extinction
M. americanum is generally reported as having disappeared from North America about 10,000 years ago, as part of a mass extinctionQuaternary extinction event
The Quaternary period saw the extinctions of numerous predominantly larger, especially megafaunal, species, many of which occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch. However, the extinction wave did not stop at the end of the Pleistocene, but continued especially on...
of the Pleistocene megafauna
Pleistocene megafauna
Pleistocene megafauna is the set of species of large animals — mammals, birds and reptiles — that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch and became extinct in a Quaternary extinction event. These species appear to have died off as humans expanded out of Africa and southern Asia,...
. However more recent radiocarbon dates have been found, such as 5200 BC in Seneca
Seneca Township, Michigan
Seneca Township is a civil township of Lenawee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,303 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water.-Demographics:As of the census...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, 5140 BC in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, 4150 BC in Washtenaw
Washtenaw County, Michigan
Washtenaw County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 344,791. Its county seat is Ann Arbor. The United States Office of Management and Budget defines the county as part of the Detroit–Warren–Flint Combined Statistical Area...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, 4080 BC in Lapeer
Lapeer County, Michigan
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 87,904 people, 30,729 households, and 23,876 families residing in the county. The population density was 134 people per square mile . There were 32,732 housing units at an average density of 50 per square mile...
, Michigan.
Recent studies indicate that tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
was common in late Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
American mastodons, and it has been suggested that this could have contributed to their extinction 10,000 years ago. However, it is not considered plausible that the disease could have caused the extinction on its own.
Another factor contributing to their eventual extinction in America during the late Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
may have been the presence of Paleo-Indians, who entered the American continent and expanded to relatively large numbers 13,000 years ago. Their hunting caused a gradual attrition of the mastodon and mammoth populations, significant enough that over time the mastodons may have been hunted to extinction. Analysis of tusks of mastodons from the American Great Lakes region
Great Lakes region (North America)
The Great Lakes region of North America, occasionally known as the Third Coast or the Fresh Coast , includes the eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as the Canadian province of Ontario...
over a span of several thousand years prior to their extinction in the area shows a trend of declining age at maturation; this is contrary to what one would expect if they were experiencing stresses from an unfavorable environment, but is consistent with a reduction in intraspecific competition that would result from a population being reduced by human hunting.
In September 2007, Mark Holley, an underwater archaeologist with the Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve Council who teaches at Northwestern Michigan College
Northwestern Michigan College
Founded in 1951, Northwestern Michigan College, known as NMC to local residents, is a community college in Traverse City, Grand Traverse County, Michigan. Its annual enrollment is around 5,100 students...
in Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was 14,674 at the 2010 census, with 143,372 in the Traverse...
, said that they might have discovered a boulder (3.5 to 4 feet (1.2 m) high x 5 feet (1.5 m) long) with a prehistoric carving in the Grand Traverse Bay
Grand Traverse Bay
Grand Traverse Bay is a bay of Lake Michigan formed by part of Northern Michigan. The bay is long, 10 miles wide, and up to deep in spots. It is divided into two arms by the Old Mission Peninsula...
of Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
. The granite rock has markings that resemble a mastodon with a spear in its side. Confirmation that the markings are an ancient petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
will require more evidence.
Taxonomy
M. americanum is a species of the extinct family MammutidaeMammutidae
Mammutidae is a family of extinct proboscideans that lived between the Miocene to the Pleistocene or Holocene. The family was first described in 1922, classifying fossil specimens of the type genus Mammut , and has since been placed in various arrangements of the order...
, related to the proboscidean family Elephantidae
Elephantidae
Elephantidae is a taxonomic family, collectively elephants and mammoths. These are terrestrial large mammals with a trunk and tusks. Most genera and species in the family are extinct...
(mammoths and elephants). The common name "Mastodon" derives from a genus named to describe various extinct members of proboscideans, Mastodon (Cuvier) is not currently used. The assignment of the taxon to Mammut, a name that preceded Cuvier's description, met with resistance and authors sometimes applied "Mastodon americanus" as an informal name. Common names for the species have sometimes been "ludicrous and misleading ... The Great American Incognitum. The Leviathan Missourium, The Carnivorous Elephant, Ohio Incognitum, Elephas americanus, a Behemoth, The Pseudelephant, Le Grande Mastodonte, Mastodon giganteus and many others".
In other media
The American mastodon is a playable fighter in the video game Fossil Fighters, and an animal in Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct AnimalsZoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals
Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals is a video game expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon 2 released October 17, 2007. The expansion focuses around extinct animals, mainly dinosaurs or ice age creatures, as well as more recently extinct creatures like the dodo, thylacine and quagga.This expansion pack follows...
. The band Mastodon
Mastodon (band)
Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1999. The band is composed of bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor...
take their name from the animal. The Black Power Ranger in Mighty Morphing Power Rangers (Zyuranger in Japan) used the Mastodon as his Zord.
See also
- Island 35 MastodonIsland 35 MastodonThe Island 35 Mastodon was discovered on Island No. 35 of the Mississippi River in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States.In 1900, a Pleistocene mastodon skeleton was excavated approximately 3 mi east of Reverie, Tennessee and 4 mi southeast of Wilson, Arkansas...
- Coats-Hines SiteCoats-Hines SiteThe Coats-Hines Site is an archaeological site located in Williamson County, Tennessee in the Southeastern United States. The site is significant in that it is one of only a very few sites in Eastern North America that contains direct evidence of Paleoindian hunting of late Pleistocene proboscideans...
- List of museums and colleges with mastodon fossils on display
External links
- The Rochester Museum of Science - Expedition Earth Glaciers & Giants
- Illinois State Museum - Mastodon
- Calvin College Mastodon Page
- American Museum of Natural History - Warren Mastodon
- BBC Science and Nature:Animals - American mastodon Mammut americanum
- Paleontological Research Institute - The Mastodon Project
- Missouri State Parks and Histroric Sites - Mastodon State Historic Site
- Saint Louis Front Page - Mastodon State Historic Site
- The Florida Museum of Natural History Virtual Exhibit - The Aucilla River Prehistory Project:When The First Floridians Met The Last Mastodons
- Western Center for Archaeology & Paleontology, home of the largest mastodon ever found in the Western United States