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Jonathan T

This is a reproduction of one of my earliest posts on this platform (foolishly, I let them all auto-delete). It's the Missouri Leviathan. Aka the American Mastodon.

Now housed in the central hall of , this fossil was unearthed as part of a 'graveyard' of fossils by Albert Koch in 1840.

It's fair to say that Koch, being a showman interested in making money, took some liberties with his reconstruction of the fossilised animals he had found...

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The American Mastodon (Mastodon americanum) on a large plinth in one of the bays in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum in London. The fossilised skeleton is seen from near face on, with the tusks of the animal curving up and above the viewer. The lighting in the bay causes shadows of the animal's ribcage to be cast onto the back wall and up onto the ribbed, arched ceiling of the bay. The colours of the bay comprise the brighly lit but muted yellows, greys and browns of the terracotta tiling and the black, grey and white of the mosaic floor tiling. A mother and her son are standing to the bottom right of the image, reading the sign for the display, with the Mastodon towering ominously above them.
An older photo of the east side of the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum in London, as viewed from the upper west side near the entrance at night. The scene is a mixture of shadow and brightly lit areas from spot and other lighting. The ornate, terracotta-tiled architecture dominates the photo, with columns, church-like alcoves, and arches curving across the view. In the bottom-left corner, an alcove is visible containing an elephant-like skeleton with its large head and curved tusks pointing out into the hall.
Jul 07, 2023, 01:00 PM·Public·Mona for Mac
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Jonathan T

Koch gave us the 'Missouri Leviathan', comprising the fossilised bones of more than one animal to create something much bigger and much more imposing than what we now know the Mastodon to have been.

The colourised lithograph depicted here shows how Koch pitched his Leviathan to a European and London audience, with an excessive number of vertebrae and ribs, and the tusks splayed to the side of the head like a grappling hook.

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A colourised printed drawing of the "Missouri Leviathan" from 1840, depicting an enormous skeleton from the side. Its tail is located at the left of the image and its head and tusks to the right. Beneath the rib cage of the animal, a man is depicted riding an elephant that is a fraction of the size of the Leviathan. A native American and white colonist are seen standing to the right of the image, with the colonist raising a stick to point at the head of the animal which is held a good three-times higher above them. The skeleton of the animal is depicated with at least three times as many vertebrae and several more ribs than would be found in any mammal, while - rather than curving down and up and pointing forwards - the tusks are splayed either side of the head as if they were grappling hooks.
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Jonathan T

Koch's exhibition in London led to the purchase by the British Museum of his Leviathan for the princely sum of £1,300, and at this juncture, we meet Richard Owen who would go on to found what is now known as the Natural History Museum in London.

Owen is probably most famous for the 'terrible lizard' moniker he later gave to a subset of fossilised land animals - the 'Dinosauria' - but already by the 1840s he was a scientist with an interest in anatomy.

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Jonathan T

Owen was already in the process of developing and contributing to the science of comparative anatomy, a field in which he was particularly adept. And it was he who set about reconstructing a physiologically accurate americanum from Koch's Leviathan.

The resulting animal is not as grandiose as the Leviathan, and Mastodon as a species are now known to have been marginally smaller animals than their pachyderm relatives of today, the elephant.

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The American Mastodon (Mastodon americanum) on a large plinth in one of the bays in the Central Hall of the Natural History Museum in London. The animal is seen from its left side on, with the tusks curving up to the left and above the viewer. It's elephant-like body and shape is evident from the fossilised skeleton and large, broad feet. The lighting in the bay causes shadows of the animal's bones to be cast onto the left and back wall, and up onto the ribbed, arched ceiling of the bay. The colours of the bay comprise the brightly lit but muted yellows, greys and browns of the terracotta tiling.
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Jonathan T

The name Mastodon, by the way, is derived from the shape of the animal's teeth: mastos meaning breast and odous meaning tooth. So, welcome to the breast-tooth platform that is Mastodon.

Image courtesy of Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil

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A fossilised Mastodon tooth from the Mattapoiset River. The blackened crown, comprising two rows of four pyramidal-shaped lumps, is - if you squint hard enough - reminiscent of upside down pendulous breasts. Though, honestly, I’m not convinced myself.
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Jonathan T

I knew I had my own photos... I was privileged enough to take these at a special event many years ago at the : this is the real deal, the fossilised lower jaw of a Mastodon americanus - not a cast - purchased in 1844 and originally excavated in Missouri, USA. The teeth are what give Mastodon its name - mastos from breast and odous from tooth - and, no, I'm still not seeing the resemblance to breasts. Look closely and the teeth in this fossil are fantastically opalescent.

A close up of a fossilised fragment of the right, lower jaw of a Mastodon. A full tooth and a partial tooth are visible on the crown of the jaw. The full tooth comprises pointed ridges in two columns and three rows. The fossilised jaw bone fragment is a chocolate brown colour and the teeth are a beautiful, opalescent white. An old label is attached to the jaw and says in handwriting, "Part of right maxilla. Mastodon americanus. Formation: Pleistocene. Location: Missouri. Purchased about 1844.
The same fossil seen directly from above. The two teeth are fully visible with the jaw bone below and partially extending on either side of the row of teeth. Each tooth looks like a corrugated surface with the left most tooth having four ridges and the right most tooth three. The teeth are opalescent, with a dominant milky, white colour.
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Lucinda Catchlove

@JonnyT Or, if you will, you log in to tit tooth to toot.

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KanaMauna

@JonnyT Yeah, someone was out in the field way too long...

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