Mastodons

Mastodon (Mammut americanum)

From Giuliani (1995) with permission of Dover Publications, Inc.

Mastodons (Mammut americanum) are part of a group of extinct elephant-like mammals, the mastodonts, that first appeared during the early Miocene, about 20 million years ago, and became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene about 10,000 years ago. The Mastodons belong to same Order of mammals as the elephants, Order Proboscidea. The name of this Order is derived from the words "pro" meaning "before" and "boskein" meaning "to feed" which refers to the elongated trunk possessed by modern and ancient elephants. This trunk not only functions as a nose, but also as an appendage that can be used to grab and manipulate objects (Haynes 1991).

Mastodons were large elephant-like animals with heavy shaggy coats and long up-curving upper-jaw tusks. Adult mastodons were 6 to 10 feet (1.9 to 3.0 meters) high at the shoulder and about 15 feet (4.5 meters) from the base of the tusks to the root of their tail. They weighed about 3500 and 5400 kilograms (4-6 tons). Their skull had a flattened brow ridge. Mastodons were shorter in overall height and had shorter and thicker legs than their mammoth relatives.

Relative to mammoths and modern elephants, mastodons possessed rather primitive teeth. Instead of the flat grinding surface composed of highly convoluted ridges of enamel that characterize the teeth of mammoths and modern elephants, mastodon teeth are characterized by rounded and pointed enamel-covered cones and close-spaced roots. These teeth would have been well-suited to clipping or crushing twigs, leaves, and stems. The nature of the teeth and gut contents indicate that the mastodons were forest-dwelling animals that browsed on leaves, trigs, shoots, and other foliage. The structure of their limbs and the close association of mastodon remains with pond and shallow lake deposits indicates that they possibly spent a large amount of time walking through shallow lakes, ponds, and swamps.

The earliest proboscideans consisted of pig to cow-size plant eaters lacking tusks. These early proboscideans are distinguished by a characteristic cusp pattern of their teeth and the structure of their skulls. More distant relatives of the mastodons, mammoths, elephants, and other proboscideans are the manatees (sea cows) and hyraxes which all shared a common ancestor that lived some 50 million years ago within Africa.

Occurence

Although a fossil common to Louisiana, mastodons have been found in very specific parts of Louisiana. They are most commonly found within blankets of loess, glacial wind-blown silt, and Quaternary sediments directly underlying it that cover the upland bordering both sides of the Mississippi River Valley. Excavations have uncovered mastodons beneath and within the loess within East Baton Rouge Parish, at Angola Prison, and beside Bayou Manchac in Ascension Parish. Mastodons have also been found in loess exposures long Tunica Bayou and Little Bayou Sarah in West Feliciana Parish. Also, a number of fossil mastodons have been found in pond sediments filling depressions overlying salt domes within Bienville, Iberia, and Winn Parishes.

Mastodon Links

Mastodon Exhibit, Illinois State Museum

Mastodon Teeth, Smithsonian

Return to Mastodon Excavation Photograph

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Version 4.0
Dec 18, 2001