Mammuthus trogontherii

Mammuthus trogontherii, commonly called the steppe mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during the Early and Middle Pleistocene, approximately 1.7 million to 200,000 years ago. The evolution of the steppe mammoth marked the initial adaptation of the mammoth lineage towards cold environments, with the species probably being covered in a layer of fur. One of the largest mammoth species, it evolved in East Asia during the Early Pleistocene, around 1.7 million years ago, before migrating into North America around 1.3 million years ago, and into Europe during the Early/Middle Pleistocene transition, around 1 to 0.7 million years ago. It was the ancestor of the woolly mammoth, Columbian mammoth and dwarf Sardinian mammoth of the later Pleistocene. In Europe, its range overlapped with that of the temperate adapted straight-tusked elephant, with steppe mammoths and straight-tusked elephants generally alternately occupying northern Europe during glacial periods and interglacials, respectively, though at rare intervals they lived alongside each other at some locations.

Mammuthus trogontherii

Gary Todd · CC0 · 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 645 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 0 of 46 occurrencesPleistocene — about 46 of 46 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 46 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence774 ka129 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

46 occurrences of Mammuthus trogontherii 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

46 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

5 formations

Cromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°EKedrovsk — 50.00°N, 86.67°EKedrovsk — 55.33°N, 86.08°ELatamne — 35.13°N, 36.75°EDursunlu — 38.28°N, 31.91°EOteobetsugawa — 43.15°N, 141.51°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mammuthus trogontherii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mammuthus trogontherii and its relatives

Pleistocene

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

Found in the same rock

318 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Mammuthus trogontherii, 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

27 references

Each of the 46 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. 15 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 trogontherii

Credit
Gary Todd
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mammuthus trogontherii · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 6872

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. (Pohlig 1885)