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“Wikipedia is not for sale.” - A personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy
Wales.

Please don't ignore this 1-minute read. This Friday, November 17th, I ask you to
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If Wikipedia has given you 5€ worth of knowledge this year, please give back.
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It is for a Wikipedia that is always reliable in terms of organizational and
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The annual plans of Wikimedia Deutschland and the Wikimedia Foundation provide a
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WHY WE ONLY NEED €9,700,000

Our goal to reach €9.7 million in donations is an important part of our total
planned revenue for 2024. Without a doubt, this is a lot of money.

However, if you consider that Wikipedia ranks as the fifth most visited website
worldwide, this figure is put into perspective. Because compared to other top
websites, we only need an extraordinarily small budget to cover our running
costs and for investments into the future. The only reason why this is possible
is because Wikipedia does not pursue a “business model”, all contributions to
Wikipedia are written by volunteers and we only have around 900 members of staff
worldwide. In addition, we are a non-profit organization, which obliges us to
handle our revenue responsibly and efficiently.


ANNUAL REVENUE – A COMPARISON

Google $280bSourceSourceAmazon $514bSourceSourceFacebook $117bSourceSourceWikipedia $0.21b


WHO RECEIVES THE DONATIONS FOR WIKIPEDIA?

Donations from Germany go to Wikimedia Deutschland in Berlin. Since our founding
in 2004, we have been promoting Wikipedia and Free Knowledge in Germany. As a
non-profit association, we are entitled to issue tax-deductible donations
receipts and to carry out the Wikipedia donation campaign.

A portion of the donation is forwarded to the Wikimedia Foundation , a
non-profit organisation that operates and develops Wikipedia and related
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CONTENTS

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 * 1History
 * 2Taxonomy
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   * 2.1Evolution
 * 3Description
 * 4Paleobiology
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   * 4.1Social behavior
   * 4.2Diet
 * 5Distribution and habitat
 * 6Extinction
 * 7See also
 * 8Notes
 * 9References
 * 10External links

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MASTODON

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Genus of mammals (fossil)
This article is about the genus. For the social networking platform, see
Mastodon (social network). For the band, see Mastodon (band). For other uses,
see Mastodon (disambiguation).
"Mammut" redirects here. For other uses, see Mammut (disambiguation).



Mastodon

Temporal range: Late Miocene – Holocene
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N


Mounted M. americanum skeleton (the "Warren mastodon"), AMNH Scientific
classification Domain: Eukaryota Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class:
Mammalia Order: Proboscidea Family: †Mammutidae Genus: †Mammut
Blumenbach, 1799 Type species †Elephas americanum

Kerr, 1792
Species
 * †M. americanum (Kerr, 1792)
 * †M. cosoensis Schultz, 1937
 * †M. matthewi Osborn, 1921
 * †M. pacificus Dooley et al., 2019
 * †M. raki Frick, 1933

Synonyms
 * Mastodon Cuvier, 1817
 * Tetracaulodon Godman, 1830
 * Missourium Koch, 1840
 * Leviathan Koch, 1841 (Emend. Koch, 1843)
 * Pliomastodon Osborn, 1926

A mastodon (mastós 'breast' + odoús 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to
the extinct genus Mammut. Mastodons inhabited North and Central America from the
late Miocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to
11,000 years ago.[1] Mastodons are the most recent members of the family
Mammutidae, which diverged from the ancestors of elephants at least 25 million
years ago. M. americanum, the American mastodon (and possibly M. pacificus if
this is a valid species), is the youngest and best-known species of the genus.
They lived in herds and were predominantly forest-dwelling animals. M.
americanum is inferred to have had a browsing diet with a preference for woody
material, distinct from that of the contemporary Columbian mammoth. Mastodons
became extinct as part of the Quaternary extinction event that exterminated most
Pleistocene megafauna present in the Americas, believed to have been caused by a
combination of climate changes at the end of the Pleistocene and hunting by
recently arrived Paleo-Indians, as evidenced by a number of kill sites where
mastodon remains are associated with human artifacts.


HISTORY[EDIT]

Exhuming the First American Mastodon, 1806 painting by Charles Willson Peale

A Dutch tenant farmer found the first recorded remnant of Mammut, a tooth some
2.2 kg (5 lb) in weight, in the village of Claverack, New York, in 1705. The
mystery animal became known as the "incognitum".[2] In 1739 French soldiers at
present-day Big Bone Lick State Park, Kentucky, found the first bones to be
collected and studied scientifically. They carried them to the Mississippi
River, from where they were transported to the National Museum of Natural
History in Paris.[3] Similar teeth were found in South Carolina, and some of the
African slaves there supposedly recognized them as being similar to the teeth of
African elephants. There soon followed discoveries of complete bones and tusks
in Ohio. People started referring to the "incognitum" as a "mammoth", like the
ones that were being dug out in Siberia[2] – in 1796 the French anatomist
Georges Cuvier proposed the radical idea that mammoths were not simply elephant
bones that had been somehow transported north, but a species which no longer
existed.[4] Johann Friedrich Blumenbach assigned the scientific name Mammut to
the American "incognitum" remains in 1799, under the assumption that they
belonged to mammoths. Other anatomists noted that the teeth of mammoths and
elephants differed from those of the "incognitum", which possessed rows of large
conical cusps, indicating that they were dealing with a distinct species. In
1817 Cuvier named the "incognitum" Mastodon.[2]

Cuvier assigned the name mastodon (or mastodont) – meaning "breast tooth"
(Ancient Greek: μαστός "breast" and ὀδούς, "tooth"),[5][6] – for the nipple-like
projections on the crowns of the molars.


TAXONOMY[EDIT]

Mastodon as a genus name is obsolete;[7] the valid name is Mammut, as that name
preceded Cuvier's description, making Mastodon a junior synonym. The change was
met with resistance, and authors sometimes applied "Mastodon" as an informal
name; consequently it became the common term for members of the genus.
"Mastodon" is also used informally to describe other non-elephant proboscideans,
such as gomphotheres.

Species include:

 * M. americanum, the American mastodon, is one of the best known and among the
   last species of Mammut. Its earliest occurrences date from the early-middle
   Pliocene (early Blancan stage). It was formerly regarded (see below) as
   having a continent-wide distribution, especially during the Pleistocene
   epoch,[8] known from fossil sites ranging from present-day Alaska, Ontario
   and New England in the north, to Florida, and as far south as Honduras.[9]
   Environmental DNA also suggests they ranged as far northeast as Greenland
   during the warmer conditions of the early Pleistocene.[10] It had tusks that
   sometimes exceeded 5 m (16 ft) in length; they curved upwards, but less
   dramatically than those of the woolly mammoth.[11] Its main habitat was cold
   spruce woodlands, and it is believed to have browsed in herds.[12] It became
   extinct at the end of the Pleistocene approximately 11,000 years ago.
 * M. matthewi — found in the Snake Creek Formation of Nebraska, dating to the
   late Hemphillian (Late Miocene-Early Pliocene).[13] Some authors consider it
   practically indistinguishable from M. americanum.[8]
 * M. pacificus — based on a 2019 analysis, Pleistocene specimens from
   California and southern Idaho have been transferred from M. americanum to
   this new species. It differs from the eastern population in having narrower
   molars, six as opposed to five sacral vertebrae, a thicker femur, and a
   consistent absence of mandibular tusks.[14]
 * M. raki — Its remains were found in the Palomas Formation, near Truth or
   Consequences, New Mexico, dating from the early-middle Pliocene, between 4.5
   and 3.6 Ma.[15] It coexisted with Equus simplicidens and Gigantocamelus and
   differs from M. americanum in having a relatively longer and narrower third
   molar,[8] similar to the description of the defunct genus Pliomastodon, which
   supports its arrangement as an early species of Mammut.[16] However, like
   M. matthewi, some authors do not consider it sufficiently distinct from
   M. americanum to warrant its own species.
 * M. cosoensis — found in the Coso Formation of California, dating to the Late
   Pliocene, originally a species of Pliomastodon,[17] it was later assigned to
   Mammut.[18]
 * M. furlongi, known from a partial mandible with three preserved molars
   (m1-m3) and a referred m3 from the Clarendonian of Oregon, originally placed
   in Pliomastodon.[14]
 * M. nevadanus originally placed in Pliomastodon, based on a partial cranium
   with preserved molars and a right tusk from Thousand Creek beds of Humboldt
   County, Nevada, dating to the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene (Hemphillian)
   unlike M. americanum, the tusk cuves downwards.[14]
 * "M." borsoni known from the late Miocene to Early Pleistocene of Europe and
   China, one of the largest known proboscideans, its placement in the genus is
   equivocal, as its relationship with North American Mammut is unclear.[19]


EVOLUTION[EDIT]

Comparison of woolly mammoth (L) and American mastodon (R) Excavation of a
specimen in a golf course in Heath, Ohio, 1989

Mammut is a genus of the extinct proboscidean family Mammutidae, related to the
family Elephantidae (mammoths and elephants), from which it originally diverged
approximately twenty-seven million years ago.[20] The following cladogram shows
the placement of the American mastodon among other proboscideans, based on hyoid
characteristics:[21]

Mammut americanum (American mastodon)

Gomphotherium sp.

Stegodon zdanskyi

Loxodonta africana (African elephant)

Elephas maximus (Asian elephant)

Mammuthus columbi (Columbian mammoth)

Mammutids originated in Africa during the Late Oligocene, with the oldest member
of the family, Losodokodon known from deposits in Kenya approximately 24-27
million years old.[22] Mammutids expanded into Eurasia during the Early Miocene,
approximately 18 million years ago, following the collision between the two
landmasses.[19]

Mammutids, represented by Zygolophodon, first arrived in North America across
the Bering Land Bridge during the late early Miocene,[19] approximately 16.5
million years ago.[23] Mammut is thought to have evolved from Zygolophodon,
though the relationship between North American Mammut and some Eurasian species
assigned to the genus, such as the Late Miocene-earliest Pleistocene species
"Mammut" borsoni is uncertain.[19] Authors have proposed various hypotheses,
including a second migration of mammutids into North America during the Late
Miocene-Pliocene with the North American Mammut being descended from Eurasian
Mammut species, or that the Eurasian and North American species of Mammut are
not closely related and evolved in parallel. The second migration hypothesis has
been criticised for lacking supporting evidence.[19]


DESCRIPTION[EDIT]

Restoration of an American mastodon with a coat of fur, which has been
questioned Restoration of an American mastodon with less hair by Heinrich Harder

Compared to mammoths and extant elephants, mastodons had a longer and wider body
but were not as tall due to their shorter legs. Their limbs were more heavily
muscled and had considerably thicker limb bones, making mastodons much more
robust in comparison to mammoths.[24][25][26] As in modern elephants, the
females were smaller than the males. The average height for male M. americanum
was about 2.9 m (9 ft 6 in) tall at the shoulder with an average body mass of 8
tonnes (7.9 long tons; 8.8 short tons); one male specimen represents this
average almost perfectly at about 2.89 m (9 ft 6 in) at the shoulder with a body
mass of about 7.8 tonnes (7.7 long tons; 8.6 short tons). The largest known male
was about 3.25 m (10.7 ft) in shoulder height and about 11 tonnes (11 long tons;
12 short tons) in weight. These dimension make M. americanum about 80% heavier
than modern elephants with equivalent shoulder heights.[27][25]

American mastodon molars at the State Museum of Pennsylvania

They had a low and long skull with long curved tusks,[28] with those of the
males being more massive and more strongly curved.[27] Mastodons had cusp-shaped
teeth, very different from mammoth and elephant teeth (which have a series of
enamel plates), well-suited for chewing leaves and branches of trees and
shrubs.[29] In contrast to its ancestor Zygolophodon, the lower jaw was
shortened (brevirostrine), the lower tusks were vestigial or absent,[30] the
upper tusks lacked an enamel band,[31] and the jaws lacked permanent premolar
teeth.[32] The lower tusks were present in about a quarter of M. americanum
individuals, but seem to have not been present at all in M. pacificus. M.
pacificus is also suggested to be distinguished from M. americanum by its
narrower molars, its consistent count of 6 sacral vertebrae, as opposed to the
typical 5 in M. americanum (though the number in M. americanum varies from 4 to
6), its more robust femurs, and a smaller base male tusk diameter.[14] However,
the distinction of M. pacificus from M. americanum has been questioned, as there
is little genetic evidence for the presence of two species.[33]

Mastodons are typically depicted with a thick woolly mammoth-like coat of hair,
but there is no preserved evidence for this, and consideration of the long tail
(usually present in animals living in warm climates), size, body mass and
environment implies the animal was not similarly hairy, and there is scant
preserved evidence of body hair.[34][25]


PALEOBIOLOGY[EDIT]


SOCIAL BEHAVIOR[EDIT]

M. pacificus female and calf at the George C. Page Museum

Based on the characteristics of mastodon bone sites and strontium and oxygen
isotopes from tusks, it can be inferred that, as in modern proboscideans, the
mastodon social group consisted of adult females and young, living in bonded
groups called mixed herds. The males abandoned the mixed herds once reaching
sexual maturity and lived either alone or in male bond groupings.[35][36] As in
modern elephants,[37] there probably was no seasonal synchrony of mating
activity, with both males and females seeking out each other for mating when
sexually active.[36]


DIET[EDIT]

M. americanum male and female, University of Michigan

Mastodons have been characterized as predominantly browsing animals.[note 1] Of
the New World proboscideans, they appear to have been the most consistent in
browsing rather than grazing, consuming C3 as opposed to C4 plants, and in
occupying closed forests versus more open habitats.[39] This dietary
inflexibility may have prevented them from invading South America during the
Great American Interchange, due to the need to cross areas of grassland to do
so.[39] Most accounts of gut contents have identified coniferous twigs as the
dominant element in their diet. Other accounts (e.g., the Burning Tree mastodon)
have reported no coniferous content and suggest selective feeding on low,
herbaceous vegetation, implying a mixed browsing and grazing diet,[40] with
evidence provided by studies of isotopic bone chemistry indicating a seasonal
preference for browsing.[41] Study of mastodon teeth microwear patterns
indicates that mastodons could adjust their diet according to the ecosystem,
with regionally specific feeding patterns corresponding to boreal forest versus
cypress swamps, while a population at a given location was sometimes able to
maintain its dietary niche through changes in climate and browse species
availability.[42] Mastodons have been found to have been eating pumpkins along
with species like woolly mammoths and other elephant species at the time. The
pumpkin would have been too toxic for many animals but mastodons are able to
avoid their toxicity due to their large body size.[43] Mastodons also
distributed pumpkin seeds around the place aiding in pumpkin range
expansion.[44]


DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT[EDIT]

Restoration of an American mastodon herd by Charles R. Knight

The range of most species of Mammut is unknown as their occurrences are
restricted to few localities, the exception being the American mastodon
(M. americanum), which is one of the most widely distributed Pleistocene
proboscideans in North America. M. americanum fossil sites range in time from
the Blancan to Rancholabrean faunal stages and in locations from as far north as
Alaska, as far east as Florida, and as far south as the state of Puebla in
central Mexico,[9] with an isolated record from Honduras, probably reflecting
the results of the maximum expansion achieved by the American mastodon during
the Late Pleistocene. A few isolated reports tell of mastodons being found along
the east coast up to the New England region,[45][46] with high concentrations in
the Mid-Atlantic region.[47][48] There is strong evidence indicating that the
members of Mammut were forest dwelling proboscideans, predominating in woodlands
and forests,[36] and browsed on trees and shrubs.[28] They apparently did not
disperse southward to South America, it being speculated that this was because
of a dietary specialization on a particular type of vegetation.[49]

The American mastodon was only present in the far north of North America during
interglacial periods, with mitochondrial genome analysis suggesting that
separate populations repeatedly colonised the region before becoming extirpated
during glacial periods.[50] A 2022 study of ancient environmental DNA from the
Kap Kobenhavn Formation of northern Greenland, dating the Early Pleistocene, 2
million years ago, identified preserved DNA fragments of mastodons, assigned to
M. americanum. This suggests that mastodons ranged as far north as Greenland
during optimal conditions. Around this time, northern Greenland was 11–19 °C
warmer than the Holocene, with a boreal forest hosting a species assemblage with
no modern analogue. These are among the oldest DNA fragments ever
sequenced.[10][51]


EXTINCTION[EDIT]

Fossil evidence indicates that mastodons probably disappeared from North America
about 10,500 years ago[1] as part of the Quaternary extinction event of most of
the Pleistocene megafauna that is widely believed to have been a result of human
hunting pressure.[52][53] The latest Paleo-Indians entered the Americas and
expanded to relatively large numbers 13,000 years ago,[54] and their hunting may
have caused a gradual attrition of the mastodon population.[55][56] 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.[56]

On the other hand, environmental DNA sequencing indicates that disappearance of
megafaunal DNA in North America correlates in time with major changes in plant
DNA, suggesting a key role of climate change.[57] Modeling based on the whole of
the proboscid fossil record also suggests climate was the more important factor,
though with human hunting imposing a "double jeopardy" on mastodons and their
kin.[58]


SEE ALSO[EDIT]

 * Paleontology portal

 * Coats–Hines site
 * List of museums and colleges with mastodon fossils on display
 * Manis Mastodon site
 * Snowmastodon site
 * Cerutti Mastodon site
 * Big Bone Lick State Park


NOTES[EDIT]

 1. ^ Browsing is a type of herbivory in which a herbivore (or, more narrowly
    defined, a folivore) feeds on leaves, soft shoots, or fruits of high
    growing, generally woody, plants such as shrubs.[38] This is contrasted with
    grazing, usually associated with animals feeding on grass or other low
    vegetation.


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 58. ^ Cantalapiedra JL, Sanisdro O, Zhang H, Alberdi MT, Prado JL, Blanco F,
     Saarinen J (July 2021). "The rise and fall of proboscidean ecological
     diversity". Nature Ecology and Evolution. 5 (2021): 1266–1272.
     doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01498-w. PMID 34211141. S2CID 235712060. ...climate
     change is the likely culprit in the demise of prehistoric mammoths,
     mastodons and early elephants rather than overhunting by early humans at
     the end of the last Ice Age.... Overhunting by humans may have served as a
     final double jeopardy in the late Pleistocene after climate-triggered
     extinction trends that began long before hominins evolved suitable hunting
     capabilities.


EXTERNAL LINKS[EDIT]

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Wikispecies has information related to Mammut.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mammut.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Mastodon".
 * 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
 * BBC News – Greek mastodon find 'spectacular'
 * Missouri State Parks and Historic Sites – Mastodon State Historic Site
 * Saint Louis Front Page – Mastodon State Historic Site
 * Story of the Randolph Mastodon (Earlham College) Archived 2015-12-20 at the
   Wayback Machine
 * 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
 * Smithsonian Magazine Features Mammoths and Mastodons
 * 360 View of a Mastodon Skull from Indiana State Museum
 * 3-D Viewers of male and female mastodon skeletons at the University of
   Michigan Mammutidae digital fossil repository
 * Scientific American, "The Chicago Mastodon", 18 September 1880, p. 175



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Elephants
General


Behavior
 * Cognition
 * Musth
 * Seismic communication



Species
 * African bush elephant
   * North African elephant
   * Desert elephant
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   * Borneo elephant
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   * Pygmy mammoth






Human use


Domestication
 * Elephant crushing
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Uses
 * Ballista elephant
 * Executions
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Weapons
 * Elephant gun
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Culture and history


By locality
 * China
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Related
 * Cultural depictions of elephants
 * List of individual elephants
   * Elephant Encyclopedia
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Genera of the order Proboscidea
 * Kingdom: Animalia
 * Phylum: Chordata
 * Class: Mammalia
 * Superorder: Afrotheria
 * Clade: Tethytheria


Proboscidea

 * †Arcanotherium
 * †Daouitherium
 * †Eritherium?
 * †Khamsaconus?
 * †Moeritherium
 * †Numidotherium
 * †Phosphatherium
 * †Saloumia

†Barytheriidae
 * Barytherium
 * Omanitherium

†Deinotheriidae
 * Chilgatherium
 * Deinotherium
 * Prodeinotherium


Elephantiformes

 * †Dagbatitherium
 * †Eritreum
 * †Hemimastodon
 * †Palaeomastodon
 * †Phiomia

Elephantimorpha


†Mammutidae
 * Eozygodon
 * Losodokodon
 * Mammut
 * Sinomammut
 * Zygolophodon


Elephantida


†Choerolophodontidae
 * Afrochoerodon
 * Choerolophodon

†Amebelodontidae
 * Afromastodon
 * Amebelodon
 * Aphanobelodon
 * Archaeobelodon
 * Eurybelodon
 * Konobelodon
 * Platybelodon
 * Progomphotherium
 * Protanancus
 * Serbelodon
 * Stenobelodon
 * Torynobelodon

†Gomphotheriidae
 * Blancotherium
 * Cuvieronius
 * Eubelodon
 * Gnathabelodon
 * Gomphotherium
 * Notiomastodon
 * Rhynchotherium
 * Sinomastodon
 * Stegomastodon


Elephantoidea


†"Tetralophodont
gomphotheres"
 * Anancus
 * Paratetralophodon
 * Pediolophodon
 * Tetralophodon

†Stegodontidae
 * Stegodon
 * Stegolophodon

Elephantidae


†Stegotetrabelodontinae
 * Selenetherium
 * Stegodibelodon
 * Stegotetrabelodon

Elephantinae
(Elephants and Mammoths)
 * Elephas
 * Loxodonta
 * †Mammuthus
 * †Palaeoloxodon
 * †Primelephas



















Taxon identifiers
 * Wikidata: Q192272
 * Wikispecies: Mammut
 * BioLib: 449556
 * BOLD: 104122
 * EoL: 4454805
 * Fossilworks: 43274
 * GBIF: 3240497
 * iNaturalist: 317759
 * IRMNG: 1033435
 * NCBI: 39051
 * ZooBank: 54E060FB-E774-4FE8-B5C4-E09B4A6A2B21



Authority control databases: National
 * Israel
 * United States

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mastodon&oldid=1185060138"
Categories:
 * Mastodons
 * Extinct animals of Canada
 * Fossil taxa described in 1799
 * Mammutidae
 * Messinian first appearances
 * Miocene mammals of North America
 * Miocene proboscideans
 * Paleontology in Michigan
 * Pleistocene extinctions
 * Pleistocene mammals of North America
 * Pleistocene proboscideans
 * Pliocene mammals of North America
 * Pliocene proboscideans
 * Ringold Formation Miocene Fauna
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 * Symbols of Michigan

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