The more widespread Mammut americanum, which lived at the same time, had a much broader range – from the Yukon through the Pacific northwest, the Four Corners, and east to the Atlantic coast. So far, Mammut pacificus has turned up throughout California and in southern Idaho. Max and friends also have six vertebrae in the sacral portion of their hips, thigh bones that are thicker in the middle section, and lack the tiny lower jaw tusks sometimes seen in Mammut americanum. The grinders are consistently narrower than those of eastern mastodons, Dooley and colleagues note. The distinctive molars of these mastodons are part of what sets them apart. These Ice Age beasts are Mammut pacificus, the Pacific mastodon. ![]() Described by paleontologist Alton Dooley and a team of five other researchers, Max and other mastodons west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains represent a different species. From teeth rolled up onto the New Jersey shore to skeletons excavated from Midwest farms to the tar-soaked bones of La Brea, all were Mammut americanum.īut Max ended up being the keystone to a discovery that had been waiting in the collections of the Western Science Center. In time, though, it seemed that there was only one American mastodon that lived from coast to coast. Even before people knew what this creature was, its remains inspired awe as the “American incognitum.” The bones and teeth of the American mastodon also figured prominently in Georges Cuvier’s famous proof that extinction is a reality at the end of the 18th century. The American mastodon – Mammut americanum – is a real rock star among prehistoric mammals. ![]() The beast is the prime example of a new species – the first new mastodon named in half a century. But Max isn’t quite like other mastodons you may have seen. Reconstructed at Hemet, California’s Western Science Center, this Pleistocene celebrity cuts an imposing Ice Age figure in the museum hall.
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