North America, Pliocene to Pleistocene, Ice Age, ca. 100,000 to 20,000 years old. A fantastic fossilized tooth from a mastodon (Mammut americanum). This molar tooth is nicely preserved with large polished ridges. These high-crowned teeth gave the mastodon its name. French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1817 dubbed these fossilized remains as mastodons meaning "nipple teeth" because of their shape. These nipple shaped teeth were suited for mashing leaves and twigs rather than grasses; mastodons lived in forested environments, unlike mammoths, who lived in open grasslands. This is an impressive piece, from an animal whose fossilized remains are so awe-inspiring that Thomas Jefferson kept some of them in the White House - mistakenly believing that they belonged to a long-dead carnivore! This is a nice example that shows the chemical changes that took place during the fossilization process, with glossy gray and white areas on the enamel ridges. Size: 7.5" L x 5" W (19 cm x 12.7 cm); 7" H (17.8 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: ex-private New Jersey, USA collection

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#162619

Stable fissures and cracks from fossilization process. Nice mineral deposits and earthen encrustations with minor flaking. Enamel of teeth are polished!