The museum facade Robert S. Feranec :: The Cohoes Mastodon
(Mammut americanum):  The Cohoes Mastodon was discovered in 1866
during construction of Harmony Mill No. 3 near Cohoes Falls on
the Mohawk River in the city of Cohoes, New York.  The
mastodon’s remains were found deeply buried in two potholes,
which had been worn into the bedrock by the swirling action of
water and stones at the end of the last Ice Age.   How and why
this young male mastodon died is unknown.  We do know from
skeletal evidence that it had been in poor health and may have
died a natural death, although some research on the skeleton
also hints that it may have been killed by ancient American
Indian hunters.   In life, the Cohoes Mastodon stood about eight
and one-half feet high at the shoulder, was about fifteen feet
long, and weighed between eight and ten thousand pounds.   Is
this a Mastodon or a Mammoth?   Although mastodons resembled
mammoths (also extinct) and elephants, they were not closely
related mammal species.  The ancestors o