Mammuthus

A mammoth is a member of the extinct elephantid genus Mammuthus. They lived from the late Miocene epoch 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 spirally twisted tusks and in some later species, the development of numerous adaptions to living in cold environments, including a thick layer of fur.

Mammuthus

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
mammothPBDB
Sits inside
ElephantiniPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elephantidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
6 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.09 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 693 occurrencesMiocene — about 9 of 693 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 74 of 693 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 608 of 693 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.3–5.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.5–4.7 Mya — about 10 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 14 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 26 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 48 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 85 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 115 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 387 occurrences5.09 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

693 occurrences of Mammuthus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

693 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

74 formations

Walanae — 4.27°S, 120.00°EWalanae — 4.39°S, 120.00°EWalanae — 4.18°S, 120.02°E"unnamed sandstone" — 33.90°N, 117.00°WSagantole — 10.62°N, 40.58°ESagantole — 10.63°N, 40.54°ESagantole — 10.47°N, 40.50°ESagantole — 10.48°N, 40.60°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.93°N, 1.30°EOcotillo — 32.90°N, 117.10°WBermont — 27.70°N, 82.50°WBermont — 26.90°N, 82.00°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.30°WTule — 34.51°N, 101.41°WVillamagna — 43.58°N, 10.80°EVillamagna — 43.55°N, 10.72°EKingsdown — 37.05°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WFloral — 52.21°N, 106.58°WFloral — 50.80°N, 103.90°WFloral — 52.10°N, 106.70°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WPauba — 33.90°N, 117.00°WSierra Ladrones — 35.10°N, 106.80°WHadar — 11.14°N, 40.58°EAdu-Asa — 10.43°N, 40.42°EAdu-Asa — 10.32°N, 40.25°EChiwondo — 10.17°S, 34.00°EChiwondo — 10.33°S, 34.17°EChiwondo — 10.05°S, 33.96°EPlatanochori — 40.57°N, 23.47°EPlatanochori — 40.53°N, 23.37°EKedrovsk — 50.00°N, 86.67°EKedrovsk — 55.33°N, 86.08°ETurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WLoveland Loess — 40.60°N, 98.50°WLoveland Loess — 40.50°N, 98.10°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WTecopa Lake Beds — 36.10°N, 117.90°WTecopa Lake Beds — 36.00°N, 116.25°W

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The named rock units Mammuthus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 50 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 550 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mammuthus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mammuthus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,549 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 671 sites for Mammuthus, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

350 references

Each of the 693 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 338 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content4

Picture of Mammuthus

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D scan

Licence
CC0 — this site’s default, not the record’s
Commercial use
the licence allows it
Specimen
Mammuthus primigenius (Blumbach)

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mammuthus meridionalis · msn_fir:mgp:Mammuthus meridionalis mandible

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itElephantini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Brookes 1828