This is Throwback Thursday #321. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

---

The following article “The Fossil Legacy of Thomas Jefferson” by Trick Runions, a long-time ESCONI member, first appeared in the May-June edition of the Flatirons Mineral Club newsletter “Flatirons Facets”.

The Fossil Legacy of Thomas Jefferson

by Trick Runions

The first mastodon teeth in America were thought to be teeth of giant humans, which are mentioned in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Preachers actually taught this. This idea came to a halt when the first full skeleton of one was found.

Thomas Jefferson was very much interested in fossil elephants and because French intellectuals made fun of the degenerative smaller animals in America, he was bound and determined to find a living mastodon to show them up. Surprisingly, for a very educated man, The did not believe that any animals went extinct, because that meant that creation was imperfect. Jefferson wrote, “Such is the economy of nature, that in no instance can be produced her having permitted any one race of her animals to become extinct.”

Jefferson chose Lewis and Clark for the Corps of Discovery expedition to find a trade route to the west coast and secretly, to find these “elephants” and to find and record all new plants and animals on their cross country trek. No one on the planet believed in or even knew about evolution at this time. Lewis and Clark found 200 new plant and animal species, as well as fossil bones.

In 1799, Thomas Jefferson formally introduced the name “mastodon” in a paper published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Drawing on classical Greek, he combined mastos (“breast”) and odon (“tooth”) to describe the distinctive conical projections on the animal’s molars, which he believed resembled breast-like forms. These unusual teeth clearly distinguished the creature from modern elephants, whose grinding molars were structured differently.

As usual, there were those political opponents who accused him of neglecting state affairs for scientific curiosities and derisively nick-named him “Mr. Mammoth.” Satirical poems mocked his fascination with fossil bones. However, top scientists from afterwards credited him with:

• Refuting French naturalist Buffon’s degeneracy theory (He said America’s animals were smaller, degenerative from European animals)
• Encouraging systematic fossil collection
• Promoting stratigraphic awareness in excavation
• Presenting the first scientific paper on a North American fossil vertebrate

Today, Thomas Jefferson is often regarded as the father of American vertebrate paleontology.

References
https://www.paleophilatelie.eu/topics/paleo/personalities/thomas jefferson.html collecting with many references.