Artist's illustration of mastodon (Mammut Americanum) hunters.
The hunters used hand-held spears to kill and butcher these enormous animals. An adult mastodon stood between seven and ten feet tall and weighed 8,000 and 12,000 pounds.

Paleoindian people hunted and gathered food. They depended on foods available seasonally, but may have supplemented their winter diet with dried foods. To the best of our knowledge, they did not cultivate plants. Archaeologists have yet to find a Paleoindian site in Illinois with evidence of their food choices, but they did make an important discovery in eastern Missouri just south of St. Louis in 1979. While unearthing the pelvis of a mastodon at the Kimmswick Site, a team of archaeologists and paleontologists discovered a Paleoindian spear point. The position of the point suggests that it was lodged in the mastodon's leg muscle. How would you interpret this discovery?

The discovery of the spear point with the leg bone is evidence that Paleoindian people hunted this mastodon. There is also evidence that they hunted white-tailed deer and smaller animals. They also may have fished, and they probably gathered a variety of seasonally available foods such as fruits, seeds, and nuts, but we have yet to find evidence for these foods in Illinois or at the Kimmswick Site.