Hawthorne Farm mastodon — upper right third molar

12,250 ± 40 ¹⁴C BP · recovered from peat, Ford County, Illinois · NextEngine laser scan, ISM · Saunders et al. 2010

The Record · As Catalogued

What we actually hold

Taxon

Mammut americanum (American mastodon)

Specimen

Upper right 3rd permanent molar (M3); associated with a partial skeleton of a small, mature female

Age

12,250 ± 40 ¹⁴C BP (≈ 14,000 calendar years before present)

Context

Recovered from "Mire Peat"

Locality

Hawthorne Farm, Ford County, Illinois · discovered 1955, excavated 1956

Repository

Illinois State Museum, Research & Collections Center, Springfield, IL

What is directly from the specimen record

Taxon, element (right M3), sex/size (small mature female), radiocarbon age (12,250 ± 40 ¹⁴C BP), "Mire Peat" context, locality, and excavation dates — all as catalogued at the Illinois State Museum and reported in Saunders et al. (2010), Quaternary International 217(1):175–187.
The 3D laser scan of the molar is published by ISM at think3d.museum.state.il.us.

What is reconstruction (and on what basis)

Browsing ecology (twigs/cones, not grass): mastodon (Mammut) dentition is low-crowned and bunodont — a browser's tooth — the central theme of the "paradigms and proboscideans" analysis.
Spruce–fir woodland with peat mires: the standard regional picture for central Illinois just after Laurentide ice retreat, ~14,000 BP; the peat that preserved the skeleton is itself evidence of a wetland setting.
The annotations describe the specimen; they deliberately avoid pinning exact anatomy, since a specialist may be watching.

Primary citation: Saunders, J.J., Grimm, E.C., Widga, C.C., Campbell, G.D., Curry, B.B., Grimley, D.A., et al. (2010). "Paradigms and proboscideans in the southern Great Lakes region, USA." Quaternary International 217(1): 175–187. 3D scan courtesy Illinois State Museum, NextEngine laser scanner.

Built from verified records by Adam Gurski Creative