In today’s times if one thinks of long teeth, elephant’s tusks come to mind. , In the ancient times, a mastodon, member of the family Mammutidae, related, though, different to the mammoth also had long teeth. The two well-preserved tusks seen above are among the recently unearthed parts of a mastodon found in northern Greece.
Measuring 16.4 feet (5 meters) and 15 feet (4.6 meters), the toothy remains “are the longest tusks ever to be discovered in the world.”
Mastodon Mural, Sequim Museum, Image credit
Some of the animal’s leg bones and parts of a jaw with molars have also been discovered. Based on the partial skeleton, the researchers believe the animal stood 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) tall at the shoulder and weighed about six tons.
Evangelia Tsoukala of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki was the team leader for the research. The team believes that the mastodon was probably between 25 and 30 years old when it died.
The tusks were probably used to break branches and twigs although some evidence suggests males may have used them in mating challenges; one tusk is often shorter than the other, suggesting that, like humans, mastodons may have had laterality
An American Mastodon Skeleton In Saltville, Va, Image credit
Mastodons were browsers, mostly eating leaves off branches and mammoths were grazers, mostly feeding on grass.The meat of mastodons was a food source for early humans. Archaeologists are still trying to determine what role, if any, the early human settlers of North America played in the extinction of the mastodon.
Checking out museums for the mastodon can be an enjoyable trip for families! You can find exhibits at:
American museum of natural history, Pink Palace Museum (Memphis, Tennessee), Mastodon State Historic Site (Kimmswick, Missouori), Museum (Baltimore, Maryland), Dayton Museum of Natural History (Dayton, Ohio), Museum of Arts and Sciences (Rochester, New York), Houston Museum of Natural Sciences (Houston, Texas), Grand Rapids Public Museum (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada),
Source: National Geographic
Comments
In so far as Mastodon fossil evidence in Alaska and Yukon, Canada, it is uncommon and rare. The northern ”Ice free corridor” did have mastodon fossils but as far as my many expeditions all through the Arctic areas I rely on the many teeth examples to clearly identify species of elephant fossils. To date I have as yet to find a single mastodon tooth in the high north in twenty years of survey...Still searching...