Mammuthus columbi

The Columbian mammoth 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.

Mammuthus columbi

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
Columbian mammothPBDB
Sits inside
MammuthusPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Mammuthus
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elephantidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
10 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 1.2 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 1 of 157 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 156 of 157 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 157 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 8 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 73 occurrences1.4 Mya129 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

157 occurrences of Mammuthus columbi 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

157 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

20 formations

Good Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WMcPherson — 38.30°N, 97.60°WOcotillo — 32.90°N, 117.10°W"Crooked Creek" — 37.10°N, 100.90°WLa Habra — 33.60°N, 117.80°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.30°WFort Thompson — 27.80°N, 82.80°WPauba — 33.90°N, 117.00°WSan Timoteo — 33.90°N, 117.00°WTecopa Lake Beds — 36.10°N, 117.90°WSierra Ladrones — 35.10°N, 106.80°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WFloral — 50.80°N, 103.90°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°WTurlock Lake — 37.06°N, 120.20°WBeaumont — 29.66°N, 94.09°W

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The named rock units Mammuthus columbi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 132 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mammuthus columbi and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mammuthus columbi and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

939 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 153 sites for Mammuthus columbi, and this reads all 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

101 references

Each of the 157 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. 89 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 content2

Picture of Mammuthus columbi

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

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itMammuthus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Falconer 1857)