mastodon

mas·to·don  (mst-dn)

n.

Any of several very large, extinct proboscidian mammals of the genus Mammut (sometimes Mastodon), resembling the elephant but having molar teeth of a different structure.

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[New Latin Mastodn, genus name : Greek mastos, breast, nipple + Greek odn, odont-, tooth (from the nipple-shaped protrusions on the crowns of its molars); see dent- in Indo-European roots.]

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masto·donic adj.

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mastodon

Noun

an extinct elephant-like mammal [New Latin, literally: breast-tooth, referring to the nipple-shaped projections on the teeth]

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mastodon  (mst-dn)

Any of several extinct mammals of the genus Mastodon (or Mammut). Mastodons resembled elephants and mammoths except that their molar teeth had conelike cusps rather than parallel ridges for grinding. Like elephants, mastodons had a pair of long, curved tusks growing from their upper jaw, but males also sometimes had a second pair from the lower jaw. Like mammoths, mastodons were covered with hair. They lived from the Oligocene Epoch to the end of the Ice Age.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

mastodon - extinct elephant-like mammal that flourished worldwide from Miocene through Pleistocene times; differ from mammoths in the form of the molar teeth mastodont proboscidean, proboscidian - massive herbivorous mammals having tusks and a long trunk genus Mammut, genus Mastodon, Mammut - extinct type genus of the Mammutidae: mastodons American mastodon, American mastodont, Mammut americanum - mastodon of North America; in some classifications considered a mammoth rather than a mastodon