Mastadon, Lawrence Hall of Science - Berkeley, California
Posted by: 
DougK
N 37° 52.780 W 122° 14.810
10S E 566234 N 4192731
The bones of some 50 mastodons were found in 1926 at the Blackhawk Ranch Fossil Quarry near Danville, These fossils were excavated from Mt. Diablo's southern slope and are part of the UC Museum of Paleontolgy on the Berkeley campus.
Waymark Code: WMJDH8
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 11/04/2013
Views: 5
Like woolly mammoths, mastodons were prehistoric relatives of modern elephants. Mastadons appeared in North America about fifteen million years ago, and still roamed parts of the continent when mammoths arrived about 1.8 million years ago.
Mastadons, also like mammoths had two upper tusks. These extremely long teeth grew like tree trunks, adding a growth ring each year. Mastadons also had two smaller tusks on the lower jaw. With four tusks, they could feed on trees, shrubs, and marshy vegetation along rivers and streams. Mastadons chewed their food with molars that had blunt, cone-shaped cusps. Mammoths, on the other hand, fed on grass and ground their food with molars that had a series ofd ridges exposed on a flat chewing surface.
During the time mastodons lived in the East Bay, about nine million years ago, volcanoes still rumbled in Berkeley and tectonic forces had not yet pushed Mt. Diablo up. Mastadon herds thrived in a forested valley, which today is Contra Costa County. Their habitat was home to many other mammals, such as giant camels, early saber-toothed cats, rabbits, ground squirrels and foxes.
UC Geologists Bruce Clark discovered the bones of some 50 mastadons - from babies to adults - in 1926 at the Blackhawk Ranch Fossil Quarry near Danville. These fossils, excavated from Mt. Diablo’s southern slope, are among the permanent collection of the UC Museum of Paleontology on the Berkeley campus. Today UCMP scientists continue to unearth and study the fossils of elephant ancestors, including Ice Age Columbian mammoth, mammut columbi, found near San Jose.
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