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Mastodon

Mammut americanum

Florida Mastodon picture.

It was a very ancient elephant and a distant relative of the Woolly Mammoth.
The word Mastodon means “nipple-teeth”. Teeth are one of the main differences between it and a Mammoth. Their cone or nipple shaped teeth are much different than the flat grinding surface of a Mammoth tooth.

Mastodon Tooth with roots. Mastodon Tooth in the Lower Jaw.
They were browsers that ate leaves, twigs, and smaller plant vegetation. Their fossils are very common in Florida, more so than Mammoths.

They were a heavier, stouter built elephant with a low sloping head and neck. They lived in warmer lowland environments and Ice Age spruce forests.

Fossil Tusk Bark Ivory
Their tusks were very straight, some reaching 15ft (5M) in length and not to be confused with the curved mammoth tusks.

They could reach 9 ft (2.75M) in height at the shoulder with a length of about 15 ft and weighing in somewhere between 8 and 12,000 lbs.

There is some evidence that they may have had seasonal migration routes in search of food.

Columbian Mammoth Gomphotheres Woolly Mammoth
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