Notiomastodon Notiomastodon Notiomastodon is an extinct proboscidean genus of gomphothere (a distant relative to modern Elephants) endemic to South America from the Pleistocene to the Holocene living for approximately . Proboscideans in South America were first described by Georges Cuvier in 1806 but he failed to give them specific names beyond "Mastodon". It was Fischer in 1814 who gave the “"mastodonte des cordillères"” specimen the first specific name ""Mastotherium hyodon"". In 1824, Cuvier gave the specific names of ""Mastodon andium"" to the ""mastodonte des cordillères"" specimen, and ""Mastodon humboldtii"" to the ""mastodonte humboldien"". Due to the Principle of Priority, this means
Manis Mastodon Site origin of the point. Gustafson also analyzed the position of the fossil, which was lying on its left side, while the heavily fragmented skull was rotated 180 degrees from its natural position. Noting that this could not have occurred due to natural causes Gustafson deduced that the carcass must have been tampered with by humans. Archaeologists were surprised to find a mastodon in the area at all because pollen samples that were taken showed no evidence of trees, which mastodons fed on. In an excavated layer above the mastodon, as well as that of a 6,700-year-old deposit of ash from