BURNING TREE MASTODON
The Burning Tree Mastodon represents the most complete
skeleton of American Mastodon ever found. The specimen was discovered on
12 December 1989 by a Flower Excavating Company drag line operator who was
digging a new pond on the Burning Tree Golf Course grounds in Heath, southern
Licking County, Ohio. The drag line’s shovel caught and damaged the
skull. In the following three days, the fossil was excavated during
relatively bitter winter cold and blowing winds. Excavation was conducted
by the Ohio Historical Society and the Licking County Archaeology &
Landmarks Society and volunteers from several organizations.
Locality:
grounds of the Burning Tree Golf Course, southern side of Ridgley Tract Road,
just west of Lake Drive, south side of Heath, southern Licking County, central
Ohio, USA.
Burning Tree Mastodon (above & below) - some major
skeletal elements that have just been excavated in mid-December 1989 from peat
representing a near-latest Pleistocene bog/shallow pond deposit in Heath,
Ohio. (Photos courtesy of The Works Museum of Newark, Ohio.)
The American Mastodon is a extinct species of
proboscidean mammal, Mammut americanum (Kerr, 1792) (Animalia, Chordata,
Vertebrata, Mammalia, Proboscidea, Mammutidae). The only living
proboscideans are the African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)
and the Asian Elephant (Elephas
maximus) (some researcher have proposed splitting the African Elephant
population into two species, Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta
cyclotis). Mammut americanum had a widespread distribution
during the Pleistocene. Its fossil remains are found from Alaska to
Florida, but are most commonly encountered in eastern America. Average
statistics reported for the American Mastodon are: ~15 feet long, 9-10 feet
tall at the shoulder, ~8,000-10,000 pounds. During life, mastodons were
covered with coarse, brownish hair, unlike modern elephants. Thick body
hair on Pleistocene proboscideans was an evolutionary adaptation to harsh
wintery climates.
Remains of >150 mastodons have been reported in Ohio,
but only about a dozen or so are semi-complete. The Burning Tree Mastodon
is a ~30 year old male and is 90-95% complete, missing only the right rear leg,
a few tail bones, two ribs, and all the toe bones. The lower spine and
right rib cage have healed injuries which have been interpreted as the result
of battles with other mastodons. Cut marks on some of the ribs indicate
that this individual was butchered by early humans. Preserved stomach
contents and intestinal contents were also recovered.
Isotopic dating of wood closely associated with the
skeleton gives dates of 11,450 to 11,660 years. Isotopic dating of actual
bone material gives an 11,390 year date (during the Wisconsinan Glacial
Interval of the near-latest Pleistocene).
Burning Tree Mastodon (above & below), Mammut
americanum, 11.4 ky, near-latest Pleistocene, Heath, Ohio, USA,
full-sized replica.
In addition to being near-complete, the Burning Tree
Mastodon is remarkable in other ways. Preserved gut contents indicated a
diet of moss, seeds, leaves, water lilies, and swamp grass. Before this
discovery, American Mastodons were interpreted as having diets consisting
principally of twigs & cones from evergreen trees. Additionally, 38
species of still-living gut bacteria were isolated from preserved intestinal
contents. These ancient bacteria were, for a while, considered the oldest
known living organisms anywhere on Earth. However, still-living gut
bacteria have been isolated from insects in early Cenozoic amber and viable
halobacteria have been recovered from Paleozoic and even late Precambrian rock
salt.
The original Burning Tree Mastodon skeleton was sold
in 1993 for over US$600,000 and now resides in Japan.
Discovery site of the Burning Tree Mastodon.
Info. mostly synthesized from references listed below.
Some
primary literature on the Burning Tree Mastodon specimen:
Fisher, D.C., B.T. Lepper & P.E. Hooge. 1991. Taphonomic analysis of the Burning Tree Mastodont. Current Research in the Pleistocene 8: 88-91.
Lepper, B.T., T.A. Frolking, D.C. Fisher, G. Goldstein, J.E. Sanger, D.A. Wymer, J.G. Ogden III & P.E. Hooge. 1991. Intestinal contents of a Late Pleistocene mastodont from midcontinental North America. Quaternary Research 36: 120-125.
Fisher, D.C. & B.T. Lepper. 1994. Paleobiology, taphonomy, and archaeology of the Burning Tree Mastodon. Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts 19: 36.
Goldstein, G. 1994. Isolation of living bacteria from the remains of an 11,000 year old mastodont. Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts 19: 42.
Fisher, D.C., B.T. Lepper & P.E. Hooge. 1994. Evidence for butchery of the Burning Tree Mastodon. pp. 43-57 in The First Discovery of America, Archaeological Evidence of the Early Inhabitants of the Ohio Area. Columbus. Ohio Archaeological Council.
Frolking, T.A. 1994. Late-Quaternary environments and landscape evolution of the Burning Tree Mastodon site, Licking County, Ohio. Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts 19: 39.
Lepper, B.T. & D.C. Fisher. 1994. Discovery, recovery, and stratigraphic context of the Burning Tree Mastodon, Licking County, Ohio, USA. Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts 19: 63.
Morgan, A.V. & J.J. Pilny. 1994. Fossil insects (Coleoptera) from the Burning Tree Mastodon site, Licking County, Ohio. Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts 19: 79.
Sanger, J.E. & D.S. Rutter. 1994. Paleolimnology of the Burning Tree Mastodont pond. Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts 19: 98.
Wymer, D.A. & L. Scott. 1994. The Burning Tree Mastodon paleobotany: gut contents and the peat matrix. Geological Association of Canada, Mineralogical Association of Canada Annual Meeting Program with Abstracts 19: 122.
Rhodes, A.N., J.W. Urbance, H. Youga, H. Corlew-Newman, C.A. Reddy, M.J. Klug, J.M. Tiedje & D.C. Fisher. 1998. Identification of bacterial isolates obtained from intestinal contents associated with 12,000-year-old mastodon remains. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 64: 651-658.
Some
secondary literature on the Burning Tree Mastodon specimen:
Hansen, M.C. 1990. Mastodon skeleton discovered in Licking County. Ohio Geology Winter 1990: 1, 3-4.
Lepper, B.T. 1990. The Burning Tree Mastodon: a nearly complete skeleton from Licking County, Ohio. Mammoth Trumpet 6(1): 7.
Kaczmarek, S. 1991. Mastodon remains yield important discoveries. Echoes [Ohio Historical Society] 30(6): 2-3.
Lafferty, M.B. 1991. The great mastodon question. Columbus Dispatch 12 May 1991: D1.
Anonymous. 1992. The Burning Tree Mastodon - "A time machine into the Ice Age". Ward's Bulletin Spring 1992: 1, 11.
Folger, T. 1992. Oldest living bacteria tell all. Discover January 1992: 30-31.
Feldmann, R.M. and 23 others. 1997 (dated 1996). Fossils of Ohio. Ohio Division of Geological Survey Bulletin 70: xix, 299, 366-367.
Loer, D. 2001. Mastodon left only a memory. Columbus Dispatch 28 January 2001: B1.
Lepper, B.T. 2003. Mastodon bones yield telltale clues to beast's demise. Columbus Dispatch 18 November 2003.