AMERICAN MASTODON TOOTH

American Mastodon Tooth. Replica

While mastodons were furry like woolly mammoths and similar in height at roughly three meters at the shoulder, the resemblance was superficial. They differed from mammoths primarily in the blunt, conical, nipple-like projections on the crowns of their molars, which were more suited to chewing leaves than the high-crowned teeth mammoths used for grazing; the name mastodon (or mastodont) means "nipple teeth" and is also an obsolete name for their genus. Their skulls were larger and flatter than those of mammoths, while their skeleton was stockier and more robust. A few skeletons have been found with the fur still attached; examination of the hair suggests that mastodons also lacked the undercoat characteristic of mammoths.