Mammoth
Mammoths (Russian: мамонт mamont) are several extinct species of elephant belonging to the genus Mammuthus, characterized by large size, long curving tusks, and in a few examples, extensive body hair. All members of the genus were extinct by 2000 B.C., the estimated date of the last known mammoths on Wrangel Island, Russia.
| Mammoth | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom Information | |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum Information | |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class Information | |
| Class | Mammalia |
| Order Information | |
| Order | Proboscidea |
| Family Information | |
| Family | Elephantidae |
| Genus Information | |
| Genus | Mammuthus |
| Population statistics | |
Description
The average size of remains found indicates mammoths were as large as modern-day Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), approximately 9-10 feet at the shoulders and 4-6 tons in weight. The largest mammoth on record, M. imperator of North America, was 16 feet at the shoulders; of extinct mammals only the elephant-like Deinotherium and the hornless rhinoceros Indricotherium were larger.
Their teeth were high-crowned molars, as opposed to their contemporaries the mastodons, which had nipple-like features. Their tusks were long and curved inwards. Body hair, reddish-brown in woolly mammoths (M. primigenius), is known from the excellent cave paintings of Spain and France, as well as frozen individuals found in the Siberian and Alaskan permafrosts.
Species
- African mammoth (Mammuthus africanavus)
- Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi)
- Imperial mammoth (Mammuthus imperator)
- Jeffersonian mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersonii)
- Pygmy mammoth (Mammuthus exilis)
- Sardinian dwarf mammoth (Mammuthus lamarmorae)
- Songhua River mammoth (Mammuthus sungari)
- South African mammoth (Mammuthus subplanifrons)
- Southern mammoth (Mammuthus meridionalis)
- Steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii)
- Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)