A new species of mastodon from California

[Logo7]

A new species of mastodon (genus Mammut) has been described from the Pleistocene of California and southern Idaho. It has been given the new species name M. pacificus and the new common name Pacific mastodon. The Californian remains of this new species were discovered in the 1990s at Diamond Valley Lake and have been held in museums throughout California for 20 years, with them being accidentally discovered during a study of mastodon teeth that revealed the distinct differences between the teeth of this species and M. americanum. It was later determined that M. pacificus also had more vertebrae, had narrower molars, lacked lower tusks, and had a thicker femur than M. americanum, leading to it being designated its own species, making it the first new species of mastodon to be described in 50 years. Here are some images of the fossils used to describe this new species as well as a link to the paper describing it.




Paper (open access!): https://peerj.com/articles/6614/

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

Interesting, is an approximate timescale known for the species yet?

[Logo7]

I believe its just from the Pleistocene, meaning it lived at the tail end of the reign of M. americanum, which had been alive since the Pliocene. However, with all mastodon fossils from California now belonging to M. pacificus, it is unlikely that the two species ever crossed paths.