Description

Mammuthus columbi  Pleistocene  FL
Mammoth Spit Tooth, 3 1/2″  $35 order e670
COMMENTS:  Tooth is complete, from a large mammoth.  It was totally exhausted by the mammoth before discarding.

MAMMOTH

The latest research indicates that the only two species of mammoth in Florida were the Mammuthus haroldcooki or early mammoth and the later columbi. The widely known Woolly Mammoth is now thought to have ventured no farther south than present-day North Carolina. Also, some leading scientists now believe that some mammoths may have survived much later than previously thought. Perhaps as recent as 4000 years ago.

Mastodon

Mastodons were in Florida almost twice as long as mammoths. Hence they are more commonly found as fossils. They were generally shorter, thicker and more heavily built than the mammoths. The males sometimes had two small lower tusks in addition to the large upper tusks.  Today, scientists believe hunting them may have caused their extinction in America. They are generally reported as having disappeared from North America about 10,500 years ago. As a result, this was a part of a mass extinction of most of the Pleistocene megafauna.

The range of most species of Mammut is unknown as their occurrences are restricted to few localities. With the exception being the American mastodon. This is one of the most widely distributed Pleistocene proboscideans in North America.  Fossil sites range in time from the faunal stages. With locations from as far north as Alaska, as far east as Florida, and as far south as the state of Puebla in central Mexico.

Complete mastodon teeth are very hard to find today in Florida. Yet bits of the enamel are often found in rivers and springs.