This model was converted from a two-dimensional drawing made by Rembrandt Peale, probably to aid with reconstructing the mastodons that he and his father Charles Willson Peale uncovered in New York State in 1801. This has long been identified as the drawing of a mastodon, but recently was shown to be an illustration of an elephant: https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/when-mastodon-not-1