Mastodons were prehistoric elephant-like mammals that lived in North America during the late Pleistocene of the Ice Age. The Pleistocene epoch stretched from about 2 million years ago to just 10,000 years ago.
Mastodons were similar to modern elephants, but had longer bodies, shorter legs, different shaped teeth, and larger and longer tusks.
This skeleton is 6 meters long, 1.7 meters wide and 3 meters high, which is as tall as a TTC bus and about one-third the length of the bus. The bones are coffee brown because they absorbed minerals from being buried underground for millions of years.
A huge tusk sticks out from the mastodon's skull just below its snout and from the side. The tusk is about half the length of the mastodon's body. Mastodons usually had two upper tusks, but this individual lost one early in life—or may had even been born that way. Scientists know this because the tusk hole on its skull was mostly closed. This suggests that it spent most of its life walking around with just a single tusk. At the front of the mastodon's lower jaw, in the middle of the chin, there was a second pair of small tusks. Modern elephants don’t have these.
The mastodon's foot bones looked like they were standing on tiptoes. Its toes end on the ground and the rest of it slopes upward toward the ankle. Behind these bones is the mass of fibrous tissue on the bottom of the foot. This tissue helped support the weight of the mastodon as it walked, acting as a cushion.
This skeleton was discovered by Harry Smith in 1911 while digging a pond on his farm southwest of Welland, Ontario! When the fossilized skeleton was collected, some pieces were missing - including its legs. The museum copied the missing parts based on a skeleton in New York. The tusk is also a replica, as direct installation would cause it to fall apart.