Mammuthus meridionalis

Mammuthus meridionalis, sometimes called the southern mammoth is an extinct species of mammoth native to Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene. Reaching a size exceeding modern elephants, unlike later Eurasian mammoth species, it was largely native to temperate climates and probably did not have a thick layer of fur. First appearing around 2.5 million years ago, probably descending from Mammuthus rumanus, it survived latest in Europe until around 800,000 years ago when it was replaced by the steppe mammoth and the straight-tusked elephant. It is the likely ancestor of the dwarf Mammuthus creticus on the island of Crete.

Mammuthus meridionalis

Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Sits inside
MammuthusPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Mammuthus
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elephantidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 128 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 28 of 128 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 100 of 128 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 128 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence5.2–4.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 4 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 12 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 15 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 16 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 10 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 7 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 5 occurrences2.58 Mya774 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

128 occurrences of Mammuthus meridionalis 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

128 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

15 formations

Norwich Crag — 52.31°N, 1.40°ENorwich Crag — 52.73°N, 1.35°EVillamagna — 43.58°N, 10.75°EVillamagna — 43.55°N, 10.72°ESabbie di Nugola Vecchia — 43.57°N, 10.51°ESabbie di Nugola Vecchia — 43.53°N, 10.49°EPlatanochori — 40.53°N, 23.37°EBaza — 37.72°N, 2.47°W'Ubeidiya — 32.68°N, 35.57°E? Sergeyevsk — 54.66°N, 86.25°EValdeganga — 39.15°N, 1.67°WSanta Maria di Ciciliano — 42.65°N, 12.49°EWestkapelle Ground — 51.62°N, 3.88°EGuadix — 37.42°N, 3.17°WRed Crag — 51.96°N, 1.35°ESagarlyk — 54.00°N, 86.00°EGonia — 40.37°N, 22.99°EGerakarou — 40.52°N, 23.44°E

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The named rock units Mammuthus meridionalis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 109 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mammuthus meridionalis and its relatives

Pleistocene

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

Found in the same rock

568 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 126 sites for Mammuthus meridionalis, 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

64 references

Each of the 128 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. 52 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 content3

Picture of Mammuthus meridionalis

Credit
Shadowgate from Novara, ITALY
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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

Smithsonian Open Access was 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. (Nesti 1825)