Tematica Animali preistorici

Mammut sp.

Phylum: Chordata Haeckel, 1874

Subphylum: Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812

Classe: Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758

Ordine: Proboscidea Illiger, 1810

Famiglia: Mammutidae Hay, 1922

Genere: Mammut Blumenbach, 1799

Specie e sottospecie

Mammut americanum (Kerr, 1792) - Mammut matthewi Osborn, 1921 - Mammut raki Frick, 1933 - Mammut cosoensis Schultz, 1937.

Descrizione

L'estinzione del mastodonte avvenne contemporaneamente a quella di molti altri appartenenti alla cosiddetta Megafauna del Pleistocene. Ne sono stati ritrovati dei resti in eccezionale stato di conservazione, che ci permettono di capire il loro aspetto fisico e, studiando il contenuto dello stomaco di uno di essi, perfino la loro alimentazione. I mastodonti avevano incisivi allungati a difesa non solamente della mascella superiore, ma anche di quella inferiore. Il nome deriva dai loro molari di forma arrotondata che, visti di profilo, ricordano la forma del seno femminile (da qui il nome desueto di Mastodon, "dente mammella").

Diffusione

Era un Proboscidato primitivo vissuto da 4 milioni a 10.000 anni fa, nel Pliocene e Pleistocene, principalmente nella parte orientale del Nordamerica (da cui il nome specifico Mammut americanum), appartenente alla famiglia Mammutidae, da non confondere con il mammuth, che invece appartiene alla famiglia Elephantidae.

Bibliografia

–Fiedal, Stuart (2009). "Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction" (PDF). In Haynes, Gary (ed.). American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene. Springer. pp. 21-37. ISBN 978-1-4020-8792-9.
–Dooley, A. C.; Scott, E.; Green, J.; Springer, K. B.; Dooley, B. S.; Smith, G. J. (2019). "Mammut pacificus sp. nov., a newly recognized species of mastodon from the Pleistocene of western North America". PeerJ. 7: e 6614.
–Conniff, Richard (April 2010). "Mammoths and Mastodons: All American Monsters". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved December 5, 2019. In the summer of 1705, in the Hudson River Valley village of Claverack, New York, a tooth the size of a man's fist surfaced on a steep bluff, rolled downhill and landed at the feet of a Dutch tenant farmer, who promptly traded it to a local politician for a glass of rum. [...] this 'monstrous creature,' [...] would soon become celebrated as the 'incognitum,' the unknown species.
–Kolbert, Elizabeth (2014). The sixth extinction : an unnatural history (First ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Co. pp. 25-26. ISBN 978-0805092998.
–Cuvier, G. (1796). "Mémoire sur les épèces d'elephans tant vivantes que fossils, lu à la séance publique de l'Institut National le 15 germinal, an IV". Magasin Encyclopédique, 2e Anée (in French): 440-445. mastodon Online Etymology Dictionary Retrieved November 10, 2012.
–Mastodon Merriam-Webster Retrieved June 30, 2012.
–Agusti, Jordi & Mauricio Anton (2002). Mammoths, Sabretooths, and Hominids. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 106. ISBN 0-231-11640-3.
–Ruez, D. R. (2007). "Chapter 4: Revision of the blancan mammals from Hagerman fossil beds, National monument, Idaho". Effects of Climate Change on Mammalian Fauna Composition and Structure During the Advent of North American Continental Glaciation in the Pliocene. pp. 249-252. ISBN 978-0549266594.
–Polaco, O. J.; Arroyo-Cabrales, J.; Corona-M., E.; López-Oliva, J. G. (2001). "The American Mastodon Mammut americanum in Mexico" (PDF). In Cavarretta, G.; Gioia, P.; Mussi, M.; Palombo, M. R. (eds.). The World of Elephants - Proceedings of the 1st International Congress, Rome October 16-20, 2001. Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. pp. 237-242. ISBN 88-8080-025-6.
–Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 243. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
–Kurtin, Bjvrn; Björn Kurtén Elaine Anderson (1980). Pleistocene Mammals of North America (illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. p. 345. ISBN 0231037333.
–Osborn, H. F. (1936). Percy, M. R. (ed.). Proboscidea: A monograph of the discovery, evolution, migration and extinction of the mastodonts and elephants of the world. 1. New York: J. Pierpont Morgan Fund.
–Mammut matthewi in the Paleobiology Database". Fossilworks. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
–Morgan, Gary S.; Spencer G. Lucas (2001). "Summary of Blancan and Irvingtonian (Pliocene and early Pleistocene) Mammalian Biochronology of New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Open-File Report 454B: 29-32.
–Lucas, Spencer G.; Morgan, Gary S. (February 1999). "The oldest Mammut (Mammalia: Proboscidea) from New Mexico". New Mexico Geology: 10-12.
–Schultz, J. R. (1937). "A Late Cenozoic Vertebrate Fauna from the Coso Mountains, Inyo County, California". Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication. 483 (3): 77-109.
–Jeheskel Shoshani; Pascal Tassy (1996). "Summary, conclusions, and a glimpse into the future". The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 335-348. ISBN 0198546521.
–"Mammut in the Paleobiology Database". Fossilworks. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
–Pickford, M. (May 2007). "New mammutid proboscidean teeth from the Middle Miocene of tropical and southern Africa". Palaeontologia Africana. 42: 29-35.