Braun bill naming the mastodon America’s fossil passes Senate

At more than 10 feet tall and weighing over 11 tons, the American mastodon was found exclusively in the U.S. during the Pleistocene era—its bones being unearthed in every state of the lower 48.

To celebrate America’s unique natural history and encourage interest in paleontology, the U.S. Senate passed the National Fossil Act on June 30. The bill, introduced by Indiana Republican Mike Braun, names the mastodon as America’s national fossil.

The mastodon is of considerable importance in the history of vertebrate paleontology, said James Farlow, emeritus professor of geology and an adjunct professor of biology at Purdue Fort Wayne. Its fossils are among the first of a vertebrate animal found in the U.S.

It is also the university's mascot.

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