Thomas Jefferson and Big Bone Lick

Meanwhile, in Europe...

While Americans had direct access to new mastodon fossils, several European naturalists were puzzling over the fossil remains of the "animal de l'Ohio" or "Mammoth". The paucity of specimens and their unfamiliarity led to considerable differences in interpretation. The identity of this unknown animal was far from resolved.

Christian Freiderich Michaelis, who tried repeatedly to obtain fossils while he was in America, returned to Göttingen (Germany) with some fossil illustrations by Charles Willison Peale. In a 1789 publication, Michaelis rejected Daubenton's contention that the Ohio fossils represented an elephant and a gigantic hippopotamus. Instead, he agreed with Hunter and Collison in that these fossils represented a single, unknown animal that was not extinct. Unlike Hunter, Michaelis concluded that its teeth were not those of a carnivore.

Michaelis also added a new, confounding element to the debate on the unknown animal. Using Peale's drawing of an upper jaw fragment, he concluded that the animal lacked the tusks and trunk of the elephant. This unusual interpretation was apparently the result of mistaking front and back on the illustration. Unlike most mammals, the space between the two rows of molars in the mastodon is narrower in the back than in the front. The end that he thought was the front simply left too little room for tusks and no room for a trunk. Unfortunately, Michaelis' interpretation was supported by Petrus Camper, a noted Dutch anatomist and an authority on fossil elephants.

Confusion and debate about this perplexing animal persisted until the issue was effectively resolved by the French anatomist Georges Cuvier. He tackled the subject in his first scholarly paper, Memoire sur les especes d'elephans tant vivantes que fossils, (Memoir on the Species of Elephants, Both Living and Fossil). In his 1796 paper, Cuvier convincingly demonstrates that the "animal de l'Ohio" was different from the Siberian mammoth and that both of these extinct species were distinct from modern elephants. Moreover, he demonstrates that there are two species of living elephants (Indian and African) rather than the commonly accepted single  species.

Cuvier returned to the subject of the "animal de l'Ohio" in 1806 with his Sur le grande mastodonte, (About the Great Mastodon). Incorporating information from a variety of sources, including Rembrandt Peale's recent Disquisition on the Mammoth (1803) as well as older publications by Louis Daubenton, Peter Collinson, William Hunter and Petrus Camper , the French anatomist presents a detailed description of the animal and names it Mastodon giganteum . Cuvier named the animal after its distinctive teeth with their pronounced conical knobs (mastos = breast, odon = tooth). The "Mammoth", "American incognitum" or "animal de l'Ohio" is now known as the American mastodon. Although Curvier was the first to adequately describe this animal, two other naturalists had already given it scientific names. In accordance with the rules of Biological Nomenclature, these earlier names take priority and the mastodon is now recognized as Mammut americanum.

Cuvier's 1806 paper on the mastodon was published before fossils from the Clark-Jefferson expedition to Big Bone Lick reached Paris in. Jefferson's fossils were also not included in the 1812 publication Reserches sur les ossemens fossils de quadrupèdes which was primarily a compilation of earlier publications. However, the Jefferson fossils were incorporated in subsequent editions of Reserches sur les osemens fossils and many of the specimens were illustrated.

Jane's Saddlebag in Big Bone Lick, KY is a heritage tourism destination with an educational farm located on historic Big Bone Creek, a backwater of the Ohio River in Boone County, Kentucky. Our facility provides hands-on experiences for children and adults with over 50 acres of hiking, creek walking, exploring, and observing wild animals. Jane's also has a large variety of farm animals to observe, cuddle, groom, feed and hold. We stress respect for animals and give emphasis to a human connection with the natural world.

Big Bone Lick, Kentucky
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