Island 35 Mastodon Island 35 Mastodon The Island 35 Mastodon was discovered on Island No. 35 of the Mississippi River in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States. In 1900, a Pleistocene mastodon skeleton was excavated approximately east of Reverie, Tennessee and southeast of Wilson, Arkansas. In 1957 the site was reported as destroyed. Mastodons are members of the prehistoric, extinct genus "Mammut". They resemble modern elephants. Native to North America, they are said to have lived on the North American continent from almost 4 million years ago, in the Pliocene Epoch, until their eventual disappearance about 10,000 years ago. In 1900, archaeologist James K.
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