During the last Ice Age, the huge American mastodon roamed what is now North America. These elephant-like creatures searched for vegetation to satisfy their enormous appetites-they had to find several hundred pounds of food to survive. Their enormous size discouraged some predators, but they were targets for prehistoric big cats and another cagey hunter-early humans. Groups of primitive people teamed up to hunt mastodons; a single kill provided a total meal-not just food but material for clothes and tools.
Tusk Tusk: this beast's two front teeth were modified into pointed tusks that grew up to six feet long. The mastodon used these tools to break branches into chewable pieces, and could even employ them as weapons to fend off predators.
Chew Chew Train: The American mastodon's jaws were loaded with 24 chewing teeth (modern elephants have four). They looked like human molars, but were up to two inches tall, seven inches long and four inches wide-two of them were about equal in size to a loaf of bread!
Big Bounty[]
Like modern elephants, mastodons battled over territory.
Because of its bulky body, the mastodon was a prime target of top predators. Scientists have found that prehistoric big cats, such as homotherium, hunted young mastodons, and they've even found tips of human hunting tools embedded in the beast's fossils. The killing of a mastodon was a great windfall for early humans. Not only would the beast's carcass have supplied an entire tribe with meat for days or even weeks, but they could also make clothes from the mastodon's skin and craft tools out of bones.
Winter Coat: The mastodon had a double-coat of fur (the outer layer was seven inches long and the underfur was two inches long) to prevent it from freezing during the intense cold weather.
Big Eats: This mastodon had to eat a lot to fuel its massive body. Scientists have found remains that still contain fossilized contents of their stomach, showing that it ate at least 500 pounds of food every day.
Timeline[]
The mastodon lived from 4 million to 10 thousand years ago, during the Tertiary and Quaternary period.
Trading Card[]
Trivia[]
- The American mastodon is featured in Man & Beast on Monster Mania 97.
- Eustreptospondylus is mistakenly labeled as Lystrosaurus on the timeline.
- The American mastodon is incorrectly described as an ancestor to Woolly Mammoth and elephants, when they lived around the same time.