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Intestinal contents of a late Pleistocene mastodont from midcontinental north America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Bradley T. Lepper ,
Tod A. Frolking ,
Daniel C. Fisher ,
Gerald Goldstein ,
Jon E. Sanger ,
Dee Anne Wymer ,
J.Gordon Ogden III  and
Paul E. Hooge
Bradley T. Lepper
Affiliation:
Newark Earthworks State Memorials, The Ohio Historical Society, 99 Cooper Avenue, Newark, Ohio 43055
Tod A. Frolking
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geography, Denison University, Granville, Ohio 43023
Daniel C. Fisher
Affiliation:
Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Gerald Goldstein
Affiliation:
Department of Botany/Microbiology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio 43105
Jon E. Sanger
Affiliation:
Department of Botany/Microbiology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio 43105
Dee Anne Wymer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Bloomsburg University, Bollomsburg, Pennsylvania 17815
J.Gordon Ogden III
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 2A2
Paul E. Hooge
Affiliation:
Licking County Archaeology and Landmarks Society, Newark, Ohio 43055
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Abstract

Salvage excavations of a nearly complete and remarkably well-preserved skeleton of an American mastodont (Mammut americanum) in Licking County, Ohio, yielded a discrete, cylindrical mass of plant material found in association with articulated vertebrae and associated ribs. This material is interpreted as intestinal contents of the mastodont and paleobotanical analyses indicate that the mastodont diet included significant amounts of low, herbaceous vegetation. Enteric bacteria (Enterobacter cloacae), isolated from a sample of this material, are believed to represent survivors or descendants of the intestinal microflora of the mastodont. This is the first report of the isolation of bacteria associated with late Pleistocene megafauna.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , July 1991 , pp. 120 - 125
Copyright
University of Washington

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