Cenozoic Lobby
Welcome to the Arizona Museum of Natural History! As you
enter the museum through the Cenozoic Lobby, animals dating from the
Pliocene-Pleistocene Epochs, approximately 3 million years to 10,000 years
ago, greet you. These include mammoth, mastodon, American lion, one-toed
horse, the armadillo-like Glyptotherium, and four species of fossil
turtles.
Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus columbi. Mammoths
entered North America from Eurasia via the Beringia land bridge from Asia to
North America between 1.6 and 1.3 million years ago. There are several
species of mammoth, but all identified with certainty from Arizona are
Columbian mammoths. Columbian mammoths stood up to 13 feet (4 meters) tall
at the shoulder and weighed 9.8 tons (10,000 kilograms). They grew tusks up
to 16 feet (4.9 meters), the longest in the elephant family!
American mastodon, Mammut americanum, lived
approximately from 3.75 million years ago until 10,000 years ago. This
individual, the largest mastodon on display in the world, died between about
17,000 and 13,000 years ago. Mastodons were woodland animals with teeth more
adapted to browsing branches than were the grinding teeth of the
grass-grazing, more open country mammoths. Adult mastodons stood between 8
and 10 feet (2.5-3 meters) at the shoulder and weighed between 4 and 6 tons
(3,500 –5,400 kilograms).
The one-toed Hagerman Horse and a limb, skull and tracks of
the three-toed horse, Nannippus. Both horses occur at the AzMNH’s 111
Ranch excavations.
The American lion, Pantheria atrox. The American lion
is a little larger than an African lion. The American lion was a powerful
predator with large canines and retractable claws. The lion probably killed
such large prey as ancient horse and bison and smaller animals such as
antelope and deer. The American lion became extinct about 10,000 years ago.
Turtles and tortoises from the 111 Ranch beds in
southeastern Arizona, about 2.4 million year old. Left rear: North American
giant tortoise, Hesperotestudo. Left front: gopher tortoise,
Gopherus. Right front: an accumulation of western box turtles,
Terrepene ornata.
Walk under the 8-foot wide megalodon jaws, from
Carcharodon megalodon, who lived 23-6 million years ago. This giant
shark lived in oceans worldwide, was over 40 feet long and ate meat,
preferably whales. Like most sharks, megalodon replaced a lost tooth with
the one behind it.
53 N. Macdonald
Mesa, AZ 85201
(One block north of Main Street in downtown Mesa. Take US 60 or 202 to
Country Club Drive, go to Main Street, and proceed one-half mile east to
Macdonald) -
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