leniwce-i-pancerniki: Mammoth

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

A mammoth is a member 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 inhabiting Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Mammoths are distinguished from living elephants 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 elephants are more closely related to each other than they are to African elephants. The oldest mammoth representative, Mammuthus subplanifrons, appeared around 6 million years…

Evidence: 49 • authority: 72

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 Mammuthus subplanifrons in the early Pliocene. The woolly mammoth began to diverge from the steppe mammoth about 800,000 years ago in Siberia. Its closest extant relative is the Asian elephant. The Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) lived alongside the woolly mammoth in North America, and DNA studies show that the two hybridised with each other. Mammoth remains were long known in Asia before they became known to Europeans. The origin of these remains wa…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Mammuthus subplanifrons is the oldest representative of the genus Mammuthus, known from around 6.2-3.75 million years ago during the late Miocene-early Pliocene in what is today South Africa and countries of East Africa, especially Ethiopia, as well as possibly central Africa. They already presented some of the unique characteristics of mammoths, like the spirally, twisting tusks.

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

The Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited North America from southern Canada to Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. The Columbian mammoth descended from Eurasian steppe mammoths that colonized North America during the Early Pleistocene around 1.5–1.3 million years ago, and later experienced hybridisation with the woolly mammoth lineage. The Columbian mammoth was among the last mammoth species, and the pygmy mammoths evolved from them on the Channel Islands of California. The closest extant relative of the Columbian and other mammoths is the Asian elephant. Reaching 3.72–4.2 m (12.2–13.8 ft) at the shoulders and 9.2–12.5 t (9.1–12.3 long t…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 92

Molecular and morphological evidence on the phylogeny of the Elephantidae.. The African and Asian elephants and the mammoth diverged ca. 4-6 million years ago and their phylogenetic relationship has been controversial. Morphological studies have suggested a mammoth Asian elephant relationship, while molecular studies have produced conflicting results. We obtained cytochrome b sequences of up to 545 base pairs from five mammoths, 14 Asian and eight African elephants. A high degree of polymorphism is detected within species. With a dugong sequence used as the outgroup, parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses support a mammoth African elephant clade. As the dugong is a very distant outgroup,…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 92