Mastodon Biography
A mastodon (mastós 'breast' + odoús 'tooth') is a member of the genus Mammut (German for "mammoth"), which strictly defined, was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to the early Holocene. Mastodons belong to the order Proboscidea, the same order as elephants and mammoths (which belong to the family Elephantidae). Mammut is the type genus of the extinct family Mammutidae, which diverged from the ancestors of modern elephants at least 27-25 million years ago, during the Oligocene. M. americanum, known as an "American mastodon" or simply "mastodon," had a long and complex paleontological history spanning all the way back to 1705 when the first fossils were uncovered from Claverack, New York in the American colonies. Naturalists struggled to explain the affinities of the proboscidean because of its uniquely shaped molars, which have no modern analogues in terms of large mammals. The American mastodon caught the attention of not only European researchers but also influential Americans before and after the American Revolution. American historians of the 21st century have argued that findings and displays of its fossils had helped to bolster American nationalism and contributed to a greater understanding of extinctions. It is known by many skeletons which are now typically on display in American museums, a trend first started by Charles Willson Peale in 1804. Taxonomically, M. americanum was first recognized as a distinct species by Robert Kerr in 1792 then classified to its own genus Mammut by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1799, thus making it the 2nd fossil mammal genus to be erected with an undisputed taxonomic authority. However, the original genus name was overshadowed by "Mastodon" in the 19th century, which was established formally by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1817. The genus became problematic as it served as a wastebasket taxon for over 20 fossil proboscidean species whose dentitions more closely resembled that of M. americanu...
