This mastodon tooth is on display at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center. A learned a couple of things from the display. Mastodons differ from mammoths in their teeth were used to eat more trees (branches, twigs, bark) while the mammoths ate more grasses. Also mammoths are more similar to today's elephants with their longer tusks and more distinct heads. The mastodon has a flatter head, longer body and short tusks.
A French-Canadian explorer Charles Le Moyne found the first American mastodon skeleton in 1739 in what would be come Kentucky. The bones were sent to Georges Cuvier in Paris France who named it Mastodon americanus.
Learn more by visiting the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clark County, Indiana, USA.
http://fallsoftheohio.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment