A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabiting Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Mammoths are distinguished from living

elephants Elephants are the Largest and heaviest animals, largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian ele ...

by their (typically large) spirally twisted tusks and in some later species, the development of numerous adaptions to living in cold environments, including a thick layer of fur. Mammoths and

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living ''Elephas'' species. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living Elephantidae, elephantid in the world. It is char ...

s are more closely related to each other than they are to

African elephant African elephants are members of the genus ''Loxodonta'' comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (''L. africana'') and the smaller African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''). Both are social herbivores with grey skin. ...

s. The oldest mammoth representative, '' Mammuthus subplanifrons'', appeared around 6 million years ago during the late Miocene in what is now southern and Eastern Africa.'''' Later in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Columbian mammoth (''M. columbi''). The

woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived from the Middle Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with the African ...

(''M. primigenius'') evolved about 700–400,000 years ago in Siberia, with some surviving on Russia's

Wrangel Island Wrangel Island (, ; , , ) is an island of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is the List of islands by area, 92nd-largest island in the world and roughly the size of Crete. Located in the Arctic Ocean between the Chukchi Sea and East Si ...

in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

until as recently as 4,000 years ago, still extant during the existence of the earliest civilisations in

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

and

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

Etymology and early observations

According to ''

The American Heritage Dictionary ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (''AHD'') is a dictionary of American English published by HarperCollins. It is currently in its fifth edition (since 2011). Before HarperCollins acquired certain business lines from H ...

,'' the word "mammoth" likely originates from *mān-oŋt, a word in the

Mansi languages The Mansi languages are spoken by the Mansi people in Siberia, Russia along the Ob River and its tributaries, in the Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and Sverdlovsk Oblast. Traditionally considered a single language, they constitute a branch o ...

of western Siberia meaning "earth horn", in reference to mammoth tusks. Mammoths appear in the folklore of the indigenous people of Siberia, who were impressed by the great size of their remains. In the mythology of the Evenk people, mammoths were responsible for the creation of the world, digging up the land from the ocean floor with their tusks. The Selkup believed that mammoths lived underground and guarded the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

, while the Nenets and the Mansi (the latter of whom, along with the Khanty, conceived mammoths as giant birds) believed that mammoths were responsible for the creation of mountains and lakes, while the

Yakuts The Yakuts or Sakha (, ; , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to North Siberia, primarily the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation. They also inhabit some districts of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. They speak Yakut, which belongs to the Si ...

regarded mammoths as water spirits. The word ''mammoth'' was first used in Europe during the early 17th century, when referring to ''maimanto'' tusks discovered in Siberia, as recorded in the 1618 edition of the ''Dictionariolum Russico-Anglicum.'' The earliest scientific research paper on mammoths was by

Vasily Tatishchev Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev (sometimes spelt Tatischev; , ; 19 April 1686 – 15 July 1750) was a statesman, historian, philosopher, and ethnographer in the Russian Empire. He is known as the author of a book on Russian history titled ''The His ...

in 1725. John Bell, who was on the

Ob River The Ob (; ) is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia, and with its tributary the Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . The Ob forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins in the Alta ...

in 1722, said that mammoth tusks were well known in the area. They were called "mammon's horn" and were often found in washed-out river banks. Bell bought one and presented it to Hans Sloan who pronounced it an elephant's tooth. In the American colonies around 1725, enslaved Africans digging in the vicinity of the Stono River in

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

unearthed molar teeth recognised in modern times to belong to Columbian mammoths, with the remains subsequently examined by the British naturalist

Mark Catesby Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English natural history, naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World. Between 1729 and 1747, Catesby published his ''Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama ...

, who visited the site, and later published an account of his visit in 1843. While the slave owners were puzzled by the objects and suggested that they originated from the

great flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeva ...

described in the Bible, Catesby noted that the slaves unanimously agreed that the objects were the teeth of elephants similar to those from their African homeland, to which Catesby concurred, marking the first technical identification of any fossil animal in North America. In 1796, French biologist

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

was the first to identify

remains not as modern elephants transported to the Arctic, but as an entirely new species. He argued this species had gone

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

and no longer existed, a concept that was not widely accepted at the time. Following Cuvier's identification, German naturalist

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He has be ...

gave the woolly mammoth its scientific name, ''Elephas primigenius'', in 1799, placing it in the ''

Elephas ''Elephas'' is a genus of elephants and one of two surviving genera in the Family (biology), family Elephantidae, comprising one extant species, the Asian elephant (''E. maximus''). Several extinct species have been identified as belonging to t ...

,'' the

which today contains the

(''Elephas maximus''). Originally the African elephants, as well as the American mastodon (described in 1792) were also placed in ''Elephas''. Cuvier coined the

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

''Elephas mammonteus'' for the woolly mammoth a few months later, but ''E. primigenius'' became the widely used name for the species, including by Cuvier. The genus name ''Mammuthus'' was coined by British anatomist Joshua Brookes in 1828, as part of a survey of his museum collection.

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

, who famously had a keen interest in

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

, is partially responsible for transforming the word ''mammoth'' from a noun describing the prehistoric elephant to an adjective describing anything of surprisingly large size. The first recorded use of the word as an adjective was in a description of a large wheel of cheese (the " Cheshire Mammoth Cheese") given to Jefferson in 1802.Simpson, J. (2009).
Word Stories: Mammoth
." ''Oxford English Dictionary Online'', Oxford University Press. Accessed 05-JUN-2009.

Evolution

The earliest known proboscideans, the

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

that contains the elephants, arose about 55 million years ago on the landmass of Afro-Arabia. The closest relatives of the Proboscidea are the

sirenians The Sirenia (), commonly referred to as sea cows or sirenians, are an order (biology), order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. The extant Sirenia comprise tw ...

and the hyraxes. The family

Elephantidae Elephantidae is a family (biology), family of large, herbivorous proboscidean mammals which includes the living Elephant, elephants (belonging to the genera ''Elephas'' and ''Loxodonta''), as well as a number of extinct genera like ''Mammuthus'' ...

arose a million years ago in Africa, including the living elephants and mammoths. Among many now-extinct clades, the

mastodon A mastodon, from Ancient Greek μαστός (''mastós''), meaning "breast", and ὀδούς (''odoús'') "tooth", is a member of the genus ''Mammut'' (German for 'mammoth'), which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to ...

is only a distant relative of the mammoths and part of the separate Mammutidae family, which diverged 25 million years before the mammoths evolved. Following the publication of the woolly mammoths mitochondrial genome sequence in 1997, it has since become widely accepted that mammoths and Asian elephants share a closer relationship with each other than either do to African elephants. The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

shows the placement of the genus ''Mammuthus'' among other proboscideans, based on

hyoid The hyoid-bone (lingual-bone or tongue-bone) () is a horseshoe-shaped bone situated in the anterior midline of the neck between the chin and the thyroid-cartilage. At rest, it lies between the base of the mandible and the third cervical verte ...

characteristics and genetics: It is possible to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the genus through morphological studies. Mammoth species can be identified from the number of enamel ridges/lamellae on their molars; the primitive species had few ridges, which increased gradually as new species evolved and replaced the former ones. At the same time, the crowns of the teeth became longer, and the skulls became higher from top to bottom and shorter from the back to the front over time to accommodate this. The earliest mammoths, assigned to the species '' Mammuthus subplanifrons'', are known from southern and eastern Africa, with the earliest records dating to the Late

, around 6.2–5.3 million years ago. By the Late

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Mammuthus africanavus.'' During the Late Pliocene, by 3.2 million years ago, mammoths dispersed into Eurasia via the Sinai Peninsula. The earliest mammoths in Eurasia are assigned to the species '' Mammuthus rumanus''. The youngest remains of mammoths in Africa are from Aïn Boucherit, Algeria dating to the Early Pleistocene, around 2.3–2 million years ago (with a possible later record from Aïn Hanech, Algeria, dating to 1.95–1.78 million years ago).'''' ''Mammuthus rumanus'' is thought to be the ancestor of '' Mammuthus meridionalis,'' which first appeared at the beginning of the Pleistocene, around 2.6 million years ago. ''Mammuthus meridionalis'' subsequently gave rise to ''

Mammuthus trogontherii ''Mammuthus trogontherii'', sometimes called the steppe mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene, Early and Middle Pleistocene, approximately 1.7 million to 200,000 years ag ...

'' (the steppe mammoth) in Eastern Asia around 1.7 million years ago. Around 1.5–1.3 million years ago, ''M. trogontherii'' crossed the

Bering Land Bridge Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72° north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of the ...

into North America, becoming ancestral to ''

Mammuthus columbi A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

'' (the Columbian mammoth). At the end of the Early Pleistocene ''Mammuthus trogontherii'' migrated into Europe, replacing ''M. meridionalis'' around 1–0.8 million years ago. '' Mammuthus primigenius'' (the woolly mammoth) had evolved from ''M. trogontherii'' in Siberia by around 600,000–500,000 years ago, replacing ''M. trogontherii'' in Europe by around 200,000 years ago, and migrated into North America during the Late Pleistocene. Several dwarf mammoth species, with small body sizes, evolved on islands as a result of

insular dwarfism Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is disti ...

. These include '' Mammuthus lamarmorai'' on Sardinia (late Middle-Late Pleistocene), ''

Mammuthus exilis A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

'' on the Channel Islands of California (Late Pleistocene), and '' Mammuthus creticus'' on Crete (Early Pleistocene).

Description

Like living elephants, mammoths typically had large body sizes. The largest known species like '' Mammuthus meridionalis'' and ''

'' (the steppe mammoth) were considerably larger than modern elephants, with mature adult males having an average height of approximately at the shoulder and weights of , while exceptionally large males may have reached at the shoulder and in weight. However, woolly mammoths were considerably smaller, only about as large as modern

African bush elephant The African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana''), also known as the African savanna elephant, is a species of elephant native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of three extant elephant species and, along with the African forest elephant, one ...

s with males around high at the shoulder, and in weight on average, with the largest recorded individuals being around tall and in weight. The insular dwarf mammoth species were considerably smaller, with the smallest species '' M. creticus'' estimated to have a shoulder height of only around and a weight of about , making it one of the smallest elephantids known. The number of

lamellae Lamella (: lamellae) means a small plate or flake in Latin, and in English may refer to: Biology * Lamella (mycology), a papery rib beneath a mushroom cap * Lamella (botany) * Lamella (surface anatomy), a plate-like structure in an animal * Lame ...

(ridge-like structures) on the molars, particularly on the third molars, substantially increased over the course of mammoth evolution. The earliest Eurasian species ''M. rumanus'' have around 8-10 lamellae on the third molars, while Late Pleistocene woolly mammoths have 20-28 lamellae on the third molars. These changes also corresponded with reduced enamel thickness and increasing tooth height ( hypsodonty). These changes are thought to be adaptations to increasing abrasion resulting from the shift in the diet of mammoths from a

browsing Browsing is a kind of orienting strategy. It is supposed to identify something of relevance for the browsing organism. In context of humans, it is a metaphor taken from the animal kingdom. It is used, for example, about people browsing open sh ...

based diet in ''M. rumanus'', towards a

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

diet in later species. Both sexes bore tusks. A first, small set appeared at about the age of six months, and these were replaced at about 18 months by the permanent set. Growth of the permanent set was at a rate of about per year. The tusks display a strong spiral twisting. Mammoth tusks are among the largest known among proboscideans with some specimens over in length and likely in weight with some historical reports suggesting tusks of Columbian mammoths could reach lengths of around substantially surpassing the largest known modern elephant tusks. The heads of mammoths were prominently domed. The first several

thoracic vertebrae In vertebrates, thoracic vertebrae compose the middle segment of the vertebral column, between the cervical vertebrae and the lumbar vertebrae. In humans, there are twelve thoracic vertebra (anatomy), vertebrae of intermediate size between the ce ...

of mammoths typically had long neural spines. The back was typically sloping, with the body being wider than that of African elephants. The tails of mammoths were relatively short compared to living elephants. Woolly mammoth model Royal BC Museum in Victoria

Woolly mammoth model Royal BC Museum in Victoria

While early mammoth species like ''M. meridionalis'' were probably relatively hairless, similar to modern elephants, ''M. primigenius'' and likely ''M. trogontherii'' had a substantial coat of fur, among other physiological adaptations for living in cold environments. Genetic sequencing of ''M. trogontherii''-like mammoths, over 1 million years old from Siberia suggests that they had already developed many of the genetic changes found in woolly mammoths responsible for tolerance of cold conditions. Scientists discovered and studied the remains of a mammoth calf, and found that fat greatly influenced its form, and enabled it to store large amounts of nutrients necessary for survival in temperatures as low as . The fat also allowed the mammoths to increase their muscle mass, allowing the mammoths to fight against enemies and live longer. Woolly mammoths evolved a suite of adaptations for arctic life, including morphological traits such as small ears and tails to minimize heat loss, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, and numerous sebaceous glands for insulation, as well as a large brown-fat hump like deposit behind the neck that may have functioned as a heat source and fat reservoir during winter.

Behaviour and palaeoecology

Based on studies of their close relatives, the modern elephants and mammoths probably had a

gestation Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregn ...

period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born. Their social structure was probably the same as that of living elephants, with females and juveniles residing in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity, with analysis of testosterone levels in tusks indicating that adult males experienced periods of

musth Musth or must (from Persian, ) is a periodic condition in bull (male) elephants characterized by aggressive behavior in animals, aggressive behavior and accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones. It has been known in Asian elephan ...

like modern elephants, where they entered a state of heightened aggression. The earliest mammoth species like ''M. subplanifrons'' and ''M. rumanus'' were mixed feeders (both

and

) to browsers. Throughout mammoth evolution in Eurasia, their diet shifted towards mixed feeding-grazing in ''M. trogontherii,'' culminating in the woolly mammoth, which was largely a grazer, with stomach contents of woolly mammoths suggesting that they largely fed on grass and

forb A forb or phorb is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in botany and in vegetation ecology especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically, these are eudicots without woo ...

s. ''M. columbi'' is thought to have been a mixed feeder. Like living elephants, mammoth adults may have been largely invulnerable to non-human predation, though evidence has been found for the hunting of mammoth calves by predators, such as by the scimitar-toothed cat (''Homotherium''). In living proboscideans, broken tusks sometimes occur during, for example, fights between males or when elephants of both sexes shove each other to reach critical resources such as water. The fracture surface of the remaining (rooted) tooth then becomes smoothed from use. It is very likely that this also occurred in extinct proboscideans such as mammoths as seen from a tusk found at Fenstanton Gravels (Cambs, UK) which still had some of the outer layers of cementum preserved and had a smooth, polished surface on an old, fractured surface ('faceting').

Relationship with early humans

Evidence that humans interacted with mammoths extends back to around 1.8 million years ago, with a number of bones of ''Mammuthus meridionalis'' from the Dmanisi site in Georgia having marks suggested to be the result of butchery by

archaic humans ''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively calle ...

, likely as a result of scavenging. During the Last Glacial Period, modern humans hunted woolly mammoths, used their remains to create art and tools, and depicted them in works of art. Remains of Columbian mammoths at a number of sites suggest that they were hunted by

Paleoindians Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...

, the first humans to inhabit the Americas. A possible bone engraving of a Columbian mammoth made by Paleoindians is known from Vero Beach, Florida.

Extinction

Following the end of the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered m ...

, the range of the woolly mammoth began to contract, disappearing from most of Europe by 14,000 years ago. By the

Younger Dryas The Younger Dryas (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1) was a period in Earth's geologic history that occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years Before Present (BP). It is primarily known for the sudden or "abrupt" cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, when the ...

(around 12,900-11,700 years

Before Present Before Present (BP) or "years before present (YBP)" is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Because ...

), woolly mammoths were confined to the northernmost regions of Siberia. This contraction is suggested to have been caused by the warming induced expansion of unfavourable wet

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

and forest environments at the expense of the preferred dry open

mammoth steppe The mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was once the Earth's most extensive biome. During glacial periods in the later Pleistocene, it stretched east-to-west, from the Iberian Peninsula in the west of Europe, then across Eurasia and thr ...

, with the possible additional pressure of human hunting. The last woolly mammoths in mainland Siberia became extinct around 10,000 years ago, during the early

. The final extinction of mainland woolly mammoths may have been driven by human hunting.

Relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

populations survived on

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

island in the Bering Strait until around 5,600 years ago, with their extinction likely due to the degradation of freshwater sources, and on

off the coast of Northeast Siberia until around 4,000 years ago. The last reliable dates of the Columbian mammoth date to around 12,500 years ago. Columbian mammoths became extinct as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event where most large mammals across the Americas became extinct approximately simultaneously at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Hunting of Columbian mammoths by Paleoindians may have been a contributory factor in their extinction. The timing of the extinction of the dwarf Sardinian mammoth '' Mammuthus lamarmorai'' is difficult to constrain precisely, though the youngest specimen likely dates to sometime around 57–29,000 years ago. The youngest records of the pygmy mammoth (''Mammuthus exillis'') date to around 13,000 years ago, coinciding with the reducing of the area of the Californian Channel Islands as a result of rising sea level, the earliest known humans in the Channel Islands, and climatic change resulting in the decline of the previously dominant conifer forest ecosystems and expansion of scrub and grassland.

Etymology and early observations

Evolution

Description

Behaviour and palaeoecology

Relationship with early humans

Extinction

See also

References

Further reading