American Mastodon Colouring

The American mastodon, Mammut americanum, was a distant elephant relative that lived across North and Central America. Fossils are known from Alaska and Canada south through the United States into Mexico. An adult stood about 3 metres at the shoulder, with a stocky body, muscular trunk and long upward-curving tusks. It often had a shaggy coat in reconstructions because many mastodons lived in cool woodland. The name mastodon means breast tooth, a reference to the rounded cone-shaped cusps on its molars. Those teeth were very different from the flat grinding plates of a mammoth. They worked well for crushing twigs, leaves, bark and branches, showing that mastodons were mainly browsers in forests, wetlands and wooded river valleys. Their social lives may have resembled those of elephants, with females and young travelling together and mature males spending more time alone. American mastodons survived until roughly 10,500 years ago. Their last individual was never named or observed by a historian; the evidence comes from skeletons, dung, stomach contents, tracks and tools found by archaeologists. Extinction occurred during a time of sharp climate and habitat change, when northern forests and wetlands were reorganising after the Ice Age. People were also present and sometimes used mastodons for food and materials. Direct dates show that some mastodons survived beyond the earliest Clovis hunting period, so neither one human culture nor one sudden cold spell provides a complete explanation. Scientists continue to test how changing woodland, small population size and human pressure may have combined. Colour this mastodon with dark brown, cinnamon, charcoal grey or reddish tan. Use short feathery strokes along the belly, back and cheeks to suggest a rough coat. The tusks can be ivory or pale yellow, while the trunk and feet may be a slightly lighter brown. Make the birch trunks white with grey marks, the spruce trees deep green, and the pond blue-green with white ripples. Leafy branches can mix spring green, olive and gold. Add gentle shadow beneath the body without filling the page dark. Smooth curves on the tusks and small strokes on the leaves will make the special woodland browser easy to recognise.

◫ A4 size✎ Bold outlines♡ Ages 3–8

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