Mammut americanum or more commonly known as the American mastodon is one of the best known and among the last surviving species of Mastodon with its earliest occurrences dating from the middle Pliocene around 3.5 million years ago. The first remains of this species are attributed to a 5.5 lb tooth recovered from Claverack, New York, in 1705. The mysterious animal became known as the "incognitum" with several speculations proposed for what it was ranging from monstrous predators, to dragons, to even giants from biblical myth. In 1739 French soldiers at present-day Big Bone Lick State Park, Kentucky, found the first bones to be collected and studied scientifically. Similar teeth to the 1705 specimen were found in South Carolina where some enslaved African people recognized them as being similar to the teeth of modern elephants. After this People started referring to the "incognitum" as a "mammoth", like the ones that were being dug out of the Siberia permafrost and in 1796 the French scientist Georges Cuvier proposed the radical idea that mammoths were not simply elephant bones that had been somehow transported north, but species which no longer existed. 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. Today the American Mastodon is known from fossil sites ranging from Alaska, Ontario and New England in the north, to Florida, southern California, and as far south as Honduras. Standing between 7 to 10 ft tall at the shoulder, and weighing between 7 and 9 tons, 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, a denser, more robust skeleton, a low and long skull, and longer less curved tusks. However, the most significant difference is the shape and function of their teeth, in mammoths and elephants the teeth have a nearly flat surface, used for grinding and sheering grass. American mastodon molars instead sport rounded cusps covered in hard enamel that formed a pair of rows, which were instead used for snapping and chewing the branches and leaves of trees and shrubs. These forest dwelling proboscideans frequented the woodlands and forests of North and Central America until a combination of changing climate and overhunting by early humans drove them to extinction roughly 10,500 years ago.
Art can be found at the links below:
American Mastodon Herd: https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/67905906868556463/
American Mastodon: https://www.beringia.com/exhibit/ice-age-animals/american-mastodon
American mastodon herd under northern lights: https://www.courthousenews.com/as-earth-warmed-ancient-mastodons-headed-far-north/
