Mammuthus

Also known as Mammoth

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.

AI overview

Mammoths were large extinct relatives of modern elephants that lived for millions of years across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America before dying out about 4,000 years ago. They are recognizable by their distinctive long, spirally twisted tusks and, in later species, their thick fur and other special adaptations for surviving in cold climates.

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Research

315 papers

Mammuthus sp. (Early and Middle Pleistocene Mammoths).Trends in genetics : TIG · 2021Pečnerová P, Díez-Del-Molino D, van der Valk T et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2021.04.006
Phylogeography of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in the Minusinsk Depression of southern Siberia in the Late Pleistocene.Vavilovskii zhurnal genetiki i selektsii · 2024Modina SA, Kusliy MA, Malikov DG et al.DOI: 10.18699/vjgb-24-63
A trunkload of ancient RNA.Cell · 2026Calvignac-Spencer S, Lalueza-Fox CDOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.12.004
Three-dimensional genome architecture persists in a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth skin sample.Cell · 2024Sandoval-Velasco M, Dudchenko O, Rodríguez JA et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.06.002
Histology of a Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) Preserved in Permafrost, Yamal Peninsula, Northwest Siberia.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2015Papageorgopoulou C, Link K, Rühli FJDOI: 10.1002/ar.23148
Evolution of endogenous retrovirus-like elements of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and its relatives.Molecular biology and evolution · 2001Greenwood AD, Lee F, Capelli C et al.DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a003865
Mammoths.Current biology : CB · 2006Hofreiter M, Lister ADOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.04.020
Tracking the past: interspersed repeats in an extinct Afrotherian mammal, Mammuthus primigenius.Genome research · 2009Zhao F, Qi J, Schuster SCDOI: 10.1101/gr.091363.109

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Wikidata facts

Mass: 6
Image: 202003 Woolly mammoth.png
Height: 4.5

Show 5 more facts

Commons category: Mammuthus
taxon name: Mammuthus
Unicode character: 🦣
start time: 5000000-00
end time: 1800-00-00

Sources (5)

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~18 min read

Article

9 sections

Contents

Etymology and early observations
Evolution
Description
Behaviour and palaeoecology
Relationship with early humans
Extinction
See also
References
Further reading

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 ago during the late Miocene in what is now southern and Eastern Africa.'' Later in the Pliocene, by about three million years ago, mammoths dispersed into Eurasia, eventually covering most of Eurasia before migrating into North America around 1.5–1.3 million years ago, becoming ancestral to the Columbian mammoth (M. columbi). The woolly mammoth (M. primigenius'') evolved about 700–400,000 years ago in Siberia, with some surviving on Russia's Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until as recently as 4,000 years ago, still extant during the existence of the earliest civilisations in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.