Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The name "mastodon" was adopted in different contexts within the United States. For instance, 4-8-0 locomotives of the late 19th century were originally named "Mastodons" before the name was eventually replaced with "12-wheeler." The name was a reference to the American mastodon. The 4-10-0 locomotive later became known also as "Mastodon."
The genus name Mammuthus was coined by British anatomist Joshua Brookes in 1828, as part of a survey of his museum collection. [ 14 ] Thomas Jefferson , who famously had a keen interest in paleontology , is partially responsible for transforming the word mammoth from a noun describing the prehistoric elephant to an adjective describing anything ...
Mammutidae is an extinct family of proboscideans belonging to Elephantimorpha.It is best known for the mastodons (genus Mammut), which inhabited North America from the Late Miocene (around 8 million years ago) until their extinction at the beginning of the Holocene, around 11,000 years ago.
This mammoth was about the same size or somewhat smaller than the earlier mammoth species M. meridionalis and M. trogontherii, but was larger than the modern African bush elephant and the woolly mammoth, both of which reached about 2.67 to 3.49 m (8 ft 9 in to 11 ft 5 in) at the shoulder. [23] [24] Males were generally larger and more robust.
The more famous woolly mammoth, as well as mastodons, were about 9-10 feet tall at the shoulder, according to the National Park Service. "This was a big, big animal.
The largest extant proboscidean is the African bush elephant, with a world record of size of 4 m (13.1 ft) at the shoulder and 10.4 t (11.5 short tons). [2] In addition to their enormous size, later proboscideans are distinguished by tusks and long, muscular trunks, which were less developed or absent in early proboscideans.
Notiomastodon specimens reached a size similar to that of the modern Asian elephant, with a body mass of 3-4 tonnes. Like other brevirostrine gomphotheres such as Cuvieronius and Stegomastodon , Notiomastodon had a shortened lower jaw and lacked lower tusks, unlike more primitive gomphotheres like Gomphotherium .
The tusks are proportionally large, with those of the biggest species being among the largest known tusks in proboscideans, with a particularly large tusk of S. ganesa from the Early Pleistocene of India measured to be 3.89 metres (12.8 ft) long, with an estimated mass of approximately 140 kilograms (310 lb), substantially larger than the ...