Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
November 11, 1789
Primary Source Reference:
Freeman's Journal (Philadelphia), 11 Nov 1789
Additional Source Text:
"Which was found on the branch of Patuxent river, five miles from Bladensburg, Maryland. It is exactly like one taken from the Salt-Lick, on the Ohio: and like another found in Mill-Creek, near Lancaster town, Pennsylvania, belonging to said Museum. These teeth being found in such different parts of America, is a proof that this tremendous animal has formerly been over many parts of North America."
Notes:
Peale's specimen of a mastodon tooth from Maryland was probably similar to the one pictured here, discovered in Anne Arundel County, Md. not far from the site Peale describes. It is indeed similar to one from Big Bone Lick, Ky., on the Ohio River, also pictured here, which was sent by William Clark in 1807 to Thomas Jefferson, who sent it to the American Philsophical Society, which later gave it to the Academy on Natural Sciences.
Specimen Type:
Individual parts
Current Common Name:
Mastodon
Current Scientific Name
Mastodon americanus
