mastodon
pronunciation
How to pronounce mastodon in British English:
UK ['mæstədɒn]
How to pronounce mastodon in American English:
US ['mæstəˌdɒn]
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- Noun:
- extinct elephant-like mammal that flourished worldwide from Miocene through Pleistocene times; differ from mammoths in the form of the molar teeth
Word Origin
- mastodon (n.)
- 1813, from Modern Latin genus name Mastodon (1806), coined by French naturalist Georges Léopole Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert, Baron Cuvier (1769-1832) from Greek mastos "breast" (see masto-) + -odon "tooth" (see tooth); so called from the nipple-like projections on the crowns of the extinct mammal's fossil molars. Related: Mastodontic.
Example
- 1. The researchers also made what they say are the first sequences of nuclear dna from the extinct american mastodon .
- 2. The mastodon became extinct about 10000 years ago - around the same time that mammoths disappeared from most of their range .
- 3. The researchers compared sequences of dna from the nuclei of african and asian elephants , and from woolly mammoths and the american mastodon .
- 4. Although mastodon mitochondrial dna has been sequenced before , the researchers say they were the first to do the analysis on dna from the cell nucleus - in this case , using material from a tooth .
- 5. Crack the skye mastodon cd sealed new 2009 .