Mastodon Paleo (Clovis?) Story Stone Mammoth and Face Effigy Offering

Mastodons were prehistoric relatives of elephants that lived in North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Africa from the late Miocene or late Pliocene up until their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene, about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. They are members of the family Mammutidae, distinct from mammoths and elephants which are part of the Elephantidae family. The term "mastodon" means "nipple teeth," referring to the conical projections on their molar teeth, which were more suited to chewing leaves and branches than the flat-topped molars designed for grazing, found in mammoths.

Physical Characteristics

Mastodons were similar in size to modern elephants but were more heavily built. They had long, curved tusks, and their bodies were covered with a coat of shaggy hair, similar to the woolly mammoth, though they were not closely related. Their skull structure was different from that of mammoths and elephants, with a lower and shorter skull.

Habitat and Diet

Mastodons were browsers rather than grazers, feeding on twigs, leaves, and branches of trees and shrubs. This diet is evidenced by their tooth structure. They lived in varied habitats, from wetlands to forested regions, suggesting they were adaptable to different environments.

Extinction

The exact reasons for the extinction of mastodons are not entirely clear but are believed to be a combination of climate change at the end of the last Ice Age and overhunting by early human populations. Their extinction coincides with that of other large mammals during the Quaternary extinction event, a period of widespread extinctions of megafauna in what is now North and South America, Europe, and Australia.

Mastodon fossils have been found in various parts of North America, with some well-preserved specimens providing a wealth of information about their size, diet, and living conditions. The discovery of these fossils has been crucial for understanding the Pleistocene megafauna and the environmental changes that took place during that era.

[Creekstain]

Awesome example! IT DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER! I just watched a video and they called the people that made the mammoth stones the mammoth steppe nomads. I need to do more research on that name.