![]() Mastodons were covered with long reddish brown hair. The body was relatively long, and the legs were short, massive, and pillarlike. The ears were smaller and not as prominent as those of elephants. Although the skull was lower and flatter and of generally simpler construction than that of the modern elephants, it was similar in appearance. Mastodons were shorter than modern elephants but were heavily built. Short lower tusks were present in males but absent in females. ![]() The prominent upper tusks were long and grew parallel to each other with an upward curvature. They are low-crowned, large, and strongly rooted, with as many as four prominent ridges separated by deep troughs the teeth are much smaller and less complex, however, than those in the true elephants. Mastodons had a worldwide distribution their remains are quite common and are often very well preserved.Ī characteristic feature of the mastodons, which appear to have fed upon leaves, is the distinctive nature of the grinding teeth, which in many respects are relatively primitive. In North America, mastodons probably persisted into post-Pleistocene time and were thus contemporaneous with Paleo-Indian groups. Mastodon, (genus Mammut), any of several extinct elephantine mammals (family Mammutidae, genus Mammut ) that first appeared in the early Miocene (23 million to 2.6 million years ago) and continued in various forms through the Pleistocene Epoch (from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago).
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