''Mammuthus subplanifrons'', the South African Mammoth, is the oldest representative of the genus ''

Mammuthus A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

'', appearing around 5 million years ago during the early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and countries of

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, especially Ethiopia. They already presented some of the unique characteristics of mammoths like the spirally, twisting tusks. It was tall at the shoulder and weighed about . In 2009, it was shown that ''Loxodonta adaurora'' is indistinguishable from ''Mammuthus subplanifrons''.The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology Volume 293, Issue 1, Article first published online: 20 NOV 2009: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.21010/pdf, retrieved 2 December 2011. The continuously decreasing length of vertebral spines from shoulder to hip and the extreme femur to tibia ratio indicate that this species belongs to ''Mammuthus'', not ''Loxodonta'' (''Loxodonta spp.'' have high vertebral spines over the hips, the mid-back having the lowest), and since ''Mammuthus subplanifrons'' was named first, that would be the valid name for the species.

References

Mammoths Cenozoic mammals of Africa Mammuthus Subplanifrons Fossil taxa described in 1928 {{paleo-proboscidean-stub