Read on Twitter
How do you tell Pleistocene mammoth, mastodon, & gomphothere molars apart? All three occur in Pleistocene deposits in South Carolina and throughout the southeastern USA but are frequently confused with one another. Here's a #fossilexplainer comic from Dr. Boessenecker to help! 
Mammoth (Mammuthus) teeth are perhaps the easiest to distinguish as they have many plates of enamel that are flattened from front to back - typically 15-30 plates or so; these plates are thin, perhaps 1 cm thick, and the enamel itself is also thin - usually about 2-3 mm.
American mastodon (Mammut) teeth are much lower and have 3-5 transverse sharp ridge-like cusps that wear down into diamond-shaped wear facets. The enamel is quite thick (4-10 cm), & looks fibrous in structure when broken.
Cuvier's gomphothere (Cuvieronius) look very similar to mastodon teeth, and generally has cusps that are low & transverse but are rounded at their tips & possess many additional finger-like cusps and lobes. As a result, the wear facets are curved and 'squiggly'.
The enamel is also quite thick, 4-10 mm.
Smaller teeth from further forward in the jaws - premolars - generally can be identified using these features, but have fewer cusps/plates in all three elephants.
Smaller teeth from further forward in the jaws - premolars - generally can be identified using these features, but have fewer cusps/plates in all three elephants.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
