Mammut

A mastodon is a member of the genus Mammut, which 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. Mammut is the type genus of the extinct family Mammutidae, which diverged from the ancestors of modern elephants at least 28 million years ago, during the Oligocene.

Mammut

AbstractionBlue · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
mastodonPBDB
Sits inside
MammutidaePBDB
Diet
browserPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
7.8 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 617 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 92 of 617 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 72 of 617 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 451 of 617 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 3 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 5 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 7 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 8 occurrences10–9.3 Mya — about 8 occurrences9.3–8.4 Mya — about 10 occurrences8.4–7.4 Mya — about 11 occurrences7.4–6.5 Mya — about 10 occurrences6.5–5.6 Mya — about 10 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 18 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 20 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 30 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 33 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 41 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 385 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

617 occurrences of Mammut on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

617 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

58 formations

Peace River — 27.90°N, 81.80°WPeace River — 27.00°N, 82.20°WPeace River — 27.68°N, 81.95°W"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WBalta Sands — 49.01°N, 27.58°EBalta Sands — 47.97°N, 29.30°EBalta Sands — 48.90°N, 28.41°EBalta Sands — 49.03°N, 28.12°EBalta Sands — 48.20°N, 29.70°EJuntura — 43.60°N, 117.50°WAlkali Canyon — 45.72°N, 120.20°WAlkali Canyon — 45.84°N, 119.29°WSnake Creek — 42.40°N, 103.80°WFleming — 30.61°N, 95.13°WFleming — 30.75°N, 95.21°WDrewsey — 42.70°N, 118.70°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.63°N, 117.89°WPiram Conglomerate — 21.62°N, 72.38°EOgallala — 36.70°N, 101.40°WAsh Hollow — 43.20°N, 99.80°WChoptank — 38.40°N, 76.50°WBrowns Park — 40.60°N, 108.10°WThousand Creek — 41.10°N, 117.80°WTruckee — 41.70°N, 119.70°WAvawatz — 34.80°N, 117.00°WGreen Valley — 37.81°N, 121.91°WZia — 35.70°N, 107.00°WTesuque — 36.50°N, 107.00°WOrinda — 37.83°N, 122.08°WPuente — 33.60°N, 117.80°W

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The named rock units Mammut has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 34 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 536 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mammut and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mammut and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,402 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 607 sites for Mammut, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

201 references

Each of the 617 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 189 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Mammut

Credit
AbstractionBlue
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mammut furlongi · uomnh:p:10291

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMammutidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Blumenbach 1799)