Most recent mastodon

Mastodons were a taxonomic family of proboscideans related to today's true elephants, but characterised by relatively short legs, long skulls, shaggy fur, and distinctive teeth. Mastodons are known for certainty only from North America, of which the best known and most widely distributed of the four currently recognised species was Mammut americanum, commonly termed the American mastodon (even though the other three species are also American!). It is also the most recent species, not becoming extinct until the end of the Pleistocene epoch 10,500-11,500 years ago. It was hunted by early humans, which may have contributed to its demise. One of the most characteristic features distinguishing the mastodons are the nipple-shaped cusps on their teeth, from which the name 'mastodon' is derived (it translates as 'nipple tooth', and was first coined during the early 1800s by the eminent French zoologist and palaeontologist Georges Cuvier).