This map shows the Mammoth Elephant range in Brown.
begin quote from:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon
Mastodons
are any species of extinct mammutid proboscideans in the genus Mammut,
distantly related to elephants, that inhabited North and Central America
...
Mastodon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mastodon
Temporal range: Late Miocene - Late Pleistocene, 5.3–0.011 Ma
|
 |
| Mounted M. americanum skeleton (the "Warren mastodon"), AMNH |
Scientific classification  |
| Kingdom: |
Animalia |
| Phylum: |
Chordata |
| Clade: |
Synapsida |
| Class: |
Mammalia |
| Order: |
Proboscidea |
| Family: |
†Mammutidae |
| Genus: |
†Mammut
Blumenbach, 1799 |
| Type species |
†Elephas americanum
Kerr, 1792 |
| Species |
- M. americanum (Kerr, 1792)
- M. matthewi Osborn, 1921
- M. raki Frick, 1933
- M. cosoensis Schultz, 1937
|
|
| The inferred range of Mammut |
| Synonyms |
- Mastodon Cuvier, 1817
- Tetracaulodon Godman, 1830
- Missourium Koch, 1840
- Leviathan Koch, 1841 (Emend. Koch, 1843)
- Pliomastodon Osborn, 1926
|
Mastodons (
Greek: μαστός "breast" and ὀδούς, "tooth") are any species of extinct
mammutid proboscideans in the genus
Mammut, distantly related to
elephants, that inhabited
North and
Central America during the late
Miocene or late
Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the
Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.
[1] Mastodons lived in herds and were predominantly forest dwelling animals that fed on a mixed diet obtained by
browsing and
grazing with a seasonal preference for browsing, similar to living elephants.
M. americanum, the American mastodon, is the youngest and best-known species of the genus. They disappeared from North America as part of a
mass extinction of most of the
Pleistocene megafauna, widely presumed to have been related to
overexploitation by
Clovis hunters, and possibly also to climate change.
Description
Modern reconstructions based on partial and skeletal remains reveal
that mastodons were very similar in appearance to elephants and, to a
lesser degree,
mammoths,
though not closely related to either one. Compared to mammoths,
mastodons had shorter legs, a longer body and were more heavily muscled,
[2] a build similar to that of the current
Asian elephants. The average body size of the species
M. americanum
was around 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) in height at the shoulders, corresponding
to a large female or a small male, but large males could grow up to
2.8 m (9 ft 2 in)
[3] in height and weigh as much as 4.5 tonnes (5 short tons).
[4]
However, the 35-year-old specimen AMNH 9950 could grow 2.89 metres
(9.5 ft) tall and weighed 7.8 tonnes (7.7 long tons; 8.6 short tons),
and another male grew 3.25 metres (10.7 ft) tall and weighed 11 tonnes
(11 long tons; 12 short tons). Another species,
M. borsoni, is
known from 30–40-year-old males that were 3.9–4.1 metres (12.8–13.5 ft)
tall and 14–16 tonnes (14–16 long tons; 15–18 short tons) in weight.
[5] Like modern elephants, the females were smaller than the males. They had a low and long skull with long curved tusks,
[6] with those of the males being more massive and more strongly curved.
[3]
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.
[4]
Discovery
The first remnant of
Mammut, a tooth some 2.2 kilograms (5 lb) in weight, was discovered in the village of
Claverack, New York, in 1705. The mystery animal became known as the "incognitum".
[7] The first bones to be collected and studied scientifically were found in 1739 at
Big Bone Lick State Park, Kentucky, by French soldiers, who carried them to the
Mississippi River, from where they were transported to the
National Museum of Natural History in
Paris.
[8]
Some time later, similar remains were found in South Carolina, which,
according to the slaves, looked remarkably similar to those of
African elephants,
soon followed by 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. Anatomists noted that the teeth of
mammoth and elephants were different from those of the "incognitum",
which possessed rows of large conical cusps, indicating that they were
dealing with a distinct species. In 1806 the French anatomist Georges
Cuvier named the incognitum "mastodon".
[7]
Classification and species
Comparison of woolly mammoth (L) and American mastodon (R)
Mammut is a genus of the extinct family
Mammutidae, related to the
proboscidean family
Elephantidae (mammoths and elephants), from which it originally
diverged approximately 27 million years ago.
[9] The following
cladogram shows the placement of the American mastodon among other proboscideans, based on
hyoid characteristics:
[10]
|
|
|
Mammut americanum (American mastodon)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Over the years, several fossils from localities in North America, Africa and Asia have been attributed to
Mammut, but only the North American remains have been named and described, one of them being
M. furlongi, named from remains found in the Juntura Formation of Oregon, dating from the late Miocene.
[11] However, it is no longer considered valid,
[12] leaving only four valid species.
M. matthewi: Found in the Snake Creek Formation of Nebraska, dating from the late Hemphillian.
[13] Some authors consider it practically indistinguishable from
M. americanum.
[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,
[14] 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. americaum to warrant its own species.
M. cosoensis: Found in the Coso Formation of California, dating from the late Pliocene, originally a species of
Pliomastodon,
[17] it was later assigned to
Mammut.
[18]
M. americanum: The American mastodon, the best known and the last species of
Mammut,
its earliest occurrences date from the early-middle Pliocene (early
Blancan stage). It had a continent wide distribution, especially during
the Pleistocene epoch,
[14] known from fossil sites ranging from present-day
Alaska and
New England in the north, to
Florida, southern
California, and as far south as
Honduras.
[19] The American mastodon resembled a
woolly mammoth in appearance, with a thick coat of shaggy hair.
[20] It had
tusks
that sometimes exceeded 5 meters (16 ft) in length; they curved
upwards, but less dramatically than those of the woolly mammoth.
[21] Its main habitat was cold
spruce woodlands, and it is believed to have browsed in herds.
[20] It became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene approximately 11,000 years ago.
A complete
mtDNA sequence has been obtained from the tooth of an
M. americanum skeleton found in permafrost in northern Alaska.
[22]
The remains are thought to be 50,000 to 130,000 years old. This
sequence has been used as an outgroup to refine divergence dates in the
evolution of the Elephantidae.
[22] The rate of mtDNA sequence change in proboscideans was found to be significantly lower than in primates.
Etymology
American mastodon molars at the State Museum of Pennsylvania
The name
mastodon (or
mastodont) means "breast tooth" (
Ancient Greek: μαστός "breast" and ὀδούς, "tooth"),
[23][24] and was assigned by the French naturalist
Georges Cuvier in 1817, for the nipple-like projections on the crowns of its molars.
Mastodon as a genus name is obsolete;
[25] the
valid name is
Mammut, a name that preceded Cuvier's description, making
Mastodon a
junior synonym. The change was met with resistance, and authors sometimes applied
"Mastodon" as an informal name so it became the common term for members of the genus.
Paleobiology
Social behavior
Female and calf American mastodon at the George Page Museum
Based on the characteristics of mastodon bone sites, 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. Unlike modern
elephants, the evidence suggests that there probably was no seasonal
synchrony of mating activity, with both males and females seeking out
each other for mating when sexually active.
[26]
Range and habitat
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 faunal stages of Blancan to
Rancholabrean 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,
[19]
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,
[27][28] with high concentrations in the Mid-Atlantic region.
[29][30] There is strong evidence indicating that the members of
Mammut were forest dwelling proboscideans, predominating in woodlands and forests,
[26] and browsed on trees and shrubs.
[6]
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.
[31]
Diet
Mastodons have been characterized as predominantly browsing animals.
[note 1]
Most accounts of gut contents have identified coniferous twigs as the
dominant element in their diet. Other accounts (Burning tree mastodon)
have reported no coniferous content and suggest selective feeding on
low, herbaceous vegetation, implying a mixed browsing and grazing diet,
[33] with evidence provided by studies of isotopic bone chemistry indicating a seasonal preference for browsing.
[34]
Extinction
They are generally reported as having disappeared from North America about 10,500 years ago
[1] as part of a
mass extinction of most of the
Pleistocene megafauna, widely presumed to have been as a result of human hunting pressure.
[35][36] The latest
Paleo-Indians entered the American continent and expanded to relatively large numbers 13,000 years ago,
[37] and their hunting may have caused a gradual attrition of the mastodon population.
[38][39] 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.
[39]
See also
Notes
References
Fiedal, Stuart (2009). "Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction". In Haynes, Gary. American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene. Springer. pp. 21–37. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_2. ISBN 978-1-4020-8792-9.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mammut. |
Lange, I.M. (2002). Ice Age Mammals of North America: A Guide to the Big, the Hairy, and the Bizarre (illustrated ed.). Mountain Press Publishing. pp. 166–168. ISBN 0878424032.
Woodman, N. (2008). "The Overmyer Mastodon (Mammut americanum) from Fulton County, Indiana". The American Midland Naturalist 159 (1): 125–146. doi:10.1674/0003-0031(2008)159[125:TOMMAF]2.0.CO;2.
Sullivan, Robert M. (2010). "Rising from the muck: The Marshalls Creek mastodon". Pennsylvania Heritage.
Larramendi, A. (2015). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 60. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014.
Lucas,
Spencer G.; Guillermo E. Alvarado (2010). "Fossil Proboscidea from the
Upper Cenozoic of Central America: Taxonomy, Evolutionary and
Pelobiogeographic Significance". Revista Geológica de América Central. 42: 9–42. ISSN 0256-7024.
Conniff, Richard (April 2010). "Mammoths and Mastodons: All American Monsters". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
Kolbert, Elizabeth (2014). The sixth extinction : an unnatural history (First ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Co. pp. 25–26. ISBN 0805092994.
Shoshani,
J.; Walter, R. C.; Abraha, M.; Berhe, S.; Tassy, P.; Sanders, W. J.;
Marchant, G. H.; Libsekal, Y.; Ghirmai, T.; Zinner, D. (2007-07-24). "A
proboscidean from the late Oligocene of Eritrea, a "missing link"
between early Elephantiformes and Elephantimorpha, and biogeographic
implications". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103 (46): 17296–17301. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10317296S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0603689103. ISSN 0027-8424.
Shoshani,
J.; Tassy, P. (2005). "Advances in proboscidean taxonomy &
classification, anatomy & physiology, and ecology & behavior". Quaternary International. 126–128: 5. Bibcode:2005QuInt.126....5S. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.011.
Shotwell,
J.A; D.E., Russell (1963). "Mammalian fauna of the upper Juntura
Formation, the black butte local fauna. in The Juntura Basin: Studies in
Earth History and Paleoecology". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 53 (1): 77.
Lambert, W.D. (1998). Proboscidea.
In: Janis, C.M., Scott, K.M., Jacobs, L.L. (Eds.), Evolution of
Tertiary Mammals of North America, Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates and
Ungulatelike Mammals, vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 606–621.
Osborn, H. F. (1936). Percy, M. R., ed. Proboscidea: A monograph of the discovery, evolution, migration and extinction of the mastodonts and elephants of the world 1. New York: J. Pierpont Morgan Fund. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.12097.
Ruez, D. R. (2007). "Chapter 4: Revision of the blancan mammals from Hagerman fossil beds, National monument, Idaho". Effects
of Climate Change on Mammalian Fauna Composition and Structure During
the Advent of North American Continental Glaciation in the Pliocene. ProQuest. pp. 249–252. ISBN 0549266593.
Morgan, Gary S.; Spencer G. Lucas (2001). "Summary of Blancan and Irvingtonian (Pliocene and early Pleistocene) Mammalian Biochronology of New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Open-File Report 454B: 29–32.
Lucas, Spencer G.; Morgan, Gary S. (February 1999). "The oldest Mammut (Mammalia: Proboscidea) from New Mexico". New Mexico Geology: 10–12.
Schultz, J. R. (1937). "A Late Cenozoic Vertebrate Fauna from the Coso Mountains, Inyo County, California". Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 483 (3): 77–109.
Jeheskel Shoshani; Pascal Tassy (1996). "Summary, conclusions, and a glimpse into the future". The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 335–348. ISBN 0198546521.
Polaco, O. J.; Arroyo-Cabrales, J.; Corona-M., E.; López-Oliva, J. G. (2001). "The American Mastodon Mammut americanum in Mexico" (PDF). In Cavarretta, G.; Gioia, P.; Mussi, M.; Palombo, M. R. The World of Elephants - Proceedings of the 1st International Congress, Rome October 16–20, 2001 (PDF). Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. pp. 237–242. ISBN 88-8080-025-6. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 243. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
Kurtin, Bjvrn; Björn Kurtén Elaine Anderson (1980). Pleistocene Mammals of North America (illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. p. 345. ISBN 0231037333.
"Proboscidean Mitogenomics: Chronology and Mode of Elephant Evolution Using Mastodon as Outgroup". Jul 24, 2007. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050207.st004.
mastodon Online Etymology Dictionary Retrieved 10 November 2012
mastodon Merriam-Webster Retrieved 30 June 2012
Agusti, Jordi and Mauricio Anton (2002). Mammoths, Sabretooths, and Hominids. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 106. ISBN 0-231-11640-3.
Haynes, G.; Klimowicz, J. (2003). "Mammoth (Mammuthus spp.) and American mastodont (Mammut americanum) bonesites: what do the differences mean?" (PDF). Advances in Mammoth Research 9: 185–204.
"Northborough's Mastodon". Northborough MA Letterboxing. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
"Prehistoric Massachusetts". The Paleontology Portal. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
"Cohoes Mastodon". Cohoes.com. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
"Prehistoric New York: Mastodons". Discovery Channel. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
Prado,
J. L.; Alberdi, M. T.; Azanza, B.; Sánchez, B.; Frassinetti, D. (2005).
"The Pleistocene Gomphotheriidae (Proboscidea) from South America". Quaternary International. 126-128: 21–30. Bibcode:2005QuInt.126...21P. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.012.
Chapman, J.L. and Reiss, M.J., Ecology: Principles and Applications. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999. p. 304. (via Google books, Feb 25, 2008)
Lepper,
B. T.; Frolking, T. A.; Fisher, D. C.; Goldstein, G.; Sanger, J. E.;
Wymer, D. A.; Ogden, J.G.; Hooge, P. E. (1991). "Intestinal Contents of a
late Pleistocene Mastodont from Midcontinental North America". Quaternary Research 36: 120–125. Bibcode:1991QuRes..36..120L. doi:10.1016/0033-5894(91)90020-6.
Fisher, D. C. (1996). "Extinction of Proboscideans in North America". In Shoshani, J. & Tassy, P. The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 296–315.
Martin, P. S. (2005). "Chapter 6. Deadly Syncopation". Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America. University of California Press. pp. 118–128. ISBN 0-520-23141-4. OCLC 58055404. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
Burney, D. A.; Flannery, T. F. (July 2005). "Fifty millennia of catastrophic extinctions after human contact" (PDF). Trends in Ecology & Evolution (Elsevier) 20 (7): 395–401. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.022. PMID 16701402. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
Beck, Roger B.; Black, Linda; Krieger, Larry S.; Naylor, Phillip C.; Shabaka, Dahia Ibo (1999). World History: Patterns of Interaction. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal Littell. ISBN 0-395-87274-X.
Ward, Peter (1997). The Call of Distant Mammoths. Springer. p. 241. ISBN 978-0-387-98572-5.
This map shows the Mammoth Elephant range in Brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment