Mammut raki

Mammut raki Temporal range: Miocene-Pliocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	Mammutidae
Genus:	Mammut
Species:	M. raki
Binomial name
Mammut raki Frick (1933)

Mammut raki is an extinct species of the genus Mammut ('mastodons') endemic to North America from the Pliocene, living from 4.9—1.8 mya, existing for approximately 3.1 million years.^[1]

The evidence for this species was first discovered in New Mexico, "from beds bearing teeth of Pleistocene Equus and elswhere". The name was once regarded as a subjective synonym of Mammut americanum, before being tentatively placed under this name. The latter species, the American Mastodon, is recorded at only four beds, dated to the later Pleistocene, in New Mexico.^[2] Other Mammut are rarely found from the Blancan period, and only in fossil beds of northern regions, Mammut raki is the earliest example of the genus to have been discovered in the region.^[3]

The species was first described by Childs Frick in 1933 as Mastodon raki, assigning it to the genus Mastodon (Cuvier). The type locality was originally indicated as "Hot Springs, New Mexico". The specific epithet commemorates the collector Joseph Rak, who provided the specimen to the American Museum of Natural History. This mandible is retained in the museum's (AMNH) collection as F:AM2335, the prefix designating it as part of Frick's collection.^[3]

The name was recombined as Mammut raki by Tedford in 1981, the generic epithet Mammut having priority over Cuvier's later description.^[4] In 1999 the authors Lucas and Morgan discerned the type to have been obtained by Rak at a site seven miles north of Hot Springs, later named Truth or Consequences, to the west of Elephant Butte Reservoir in the Palomos Formation. Lucas and Morgan redescribed the specimen F:AM2335, provided photographs and an illustration, and attributed a provenance to this holotype. The distinguishing characteristics of the teeth present in mandible was found to be similar to the description of Pliomastodon and supported its current arrangement as an early species of Mammut.^[3]

The mammalian fauna found alongside Mammut raki include Equus simplicidens and Gigantocamelus. The age of the holotype was inferred from the morphology of the mandible and teeth, and by the biochronology of the nearby mammalian assemblage.^[3]

References

1. ^ PaleoBiology Database: Mammut raki, basic info
2. ^ Lucas, Spencer G., Morgan, Gary S. 1997. The American Mastodont (Mammut americanum) in New Mexico. The Southwestern Naturalist, 42(3):312-317
3. ^ ^{a b c d} S. G. Lucas and G. S. Morgan. 1999. "The oldest Mammut (Proboscidea; Mammalia) from New Mexico". New Mexico Geology 21
4. ^ PaleoBiology citing R. H. Tedford. 1981. Geological Society America Bulletin 92