Elephantidae is a collective family of mammals under the classification of being large and having tusks.With that definition mammoths,elephants, and mastodons are surely part of the elephantidae
nipple teeth
family. Almost. Being part of the elephantidae is about one of the only things that they have in common. mastodons are the oddballs. instead of being a grazer like mammoths and elephants, they’re browsers. They also have nipple shaped teeth while elephants do not. They are also different in their skeletons. Mastodons have larger flatter skulls than mammoths. They have more robust and stockier skulls than mammoths as well.
stocky robust skeleton
so in the end, mastodons were the ice age’s outlier of the elephantidae family.
By AlejandroLinaresGarcia (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
family. Almost.
Being part of the elephantidae is about one of the only things that they have in common. mastodons are the oddballs. instead of being a grazer like mammoths and elephants, they’re browsers. They also have nipple shaped teeth while elephants do not. They are also different in their skeletons. Mastodons have larger flatter skulls than mammoths. They have more robust and stockier skulls than mammoths as well.
so in the end, mastodons were the ice age’s outlier of the elephantidae family.
By AlejandroLinaresGarcia (Own work) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/MastodonTeethPalacioCV.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Mammut_skeleton_Museum_of_the_Earth.jpg
By Jayu from Harrisburg, PA, U.S.A. [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons