A mammoth is any species 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 at least some later species, the development of numerous adaptions to living in cold environments, including a thick layer of fur.
Proboscidea is a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. Three species of elephant are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant.
A mastodon is a member of the genus Mammut, which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to the early Holocene. Mastodons belong to the order Proboscidea, the same order as elephants and mammoths. Mammut is the type genus of the extinct family Mammutidae, which diverged from the ancestors of modern elephants at least 27–25 million years ago, during the Oligocene.
Elephantidae is a family of large, herbivorous proboscidean mammals collectively called elephants and mammoths. These are large terrestrial mammals with a snout modified into a trunk and teeth modified into tusks. Most genera and species in the family are extinct. Only two genera, Loxodonta and Elephas, are living.
Mammutidae is an extinct family of proboscideans belonging to Elephantimorpha. It is best known for the mastodons, which inhabited North America from the Late Miocene until their extinction at beginning of the Holocene, around 11,000 years ago. The earliest fossils of the group are known from the Late Oligocene of Africa, around 24 million years ago, and fossils of the group have also been found across Eurasia. The name "mastodon" derives from Greek, μαστός "nipple" and ὀδούς "tooth", referring to their characteristic teeth.
Palaeoloxodon is an extinct genus of elephant. The genus originated in Africa during the Early Pleistocene, and expanded into Eurasia at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene. The genus contains the largest known species of elephants, over 4 metres (13 ft) tall at the shoulders and over 13 tonnes (29,000 lb) in weight, representing among the largest land mammals ever, including the African Palaeoloxodon recki, the European straight-tusked elephant and the South Asian Palaeoloxodon namadicus. P. namadicus has been suggested to be the largest known land mammal by some authors based on extrapolation from fragmentary remains, though these estimates are highly speculative. In contrast, the genus also contains many species of dwarf elephants that evolved via insular dwarfism on islands in the Mediterranean, some like Palaeoloxodon falconeri less than 1 metre (3.3 ft) in shoulder height as fully grown adults, making them the smallest elephants known. The genus has a long and complex taxonomic history, and at various times, it has been considered to belong to Loxodonta or Elephas, but today is usually considered a valid and separate genus in its own right.
Stegodon is an extinct genus of proboscidean, related to elephants. It was originally assigned to the family Elephantidae along with modern elephants but is now placed in the extinct family Stegodontidae. Like elephants, Stegodon had teeth with plate-like lophs that are different from those of more primitive proboscideans like gomphotheres and mammutids. Fossils of the genus are known from Africa and across much of Asia, as far southeast as Timor. The oldest fossils of the genus are found in Late Miocene strata in Asia, likely originating from the more archaic Stegolophodon, subsequently migrating into Africa. While the genus became extinct in Africa during the Pliocene, Stegodon persisted in South, Southeast and Eastern Asia into the Late Pleistocene.
Gomphotheres are an extinct group of proboscideans related to modern elephants. First appearing in Africa during the Oligocene, they dispersed into Eurasia and North America during the Miocene and arrived in South America during the Pleistocene as part of the Great American Interchange. Gomphotheres are a paraphyletic group ancestral to Elephantidae, which contains modern elephants, as well as Stegodontidae.
Palaeoloxodon recki, often known by the synonym Elephas recki, is an extinct species of elephant native to Africa and West Asia from the Pliocene or Early Pleistocene to the Middle Pleistocene. During most of its existence, the species represented the dominant elephant species in East Africa. The species is divided into five roughly chronologically successive subspecies. While the type and latest subspecies P. recki recki as well as the preceding P. recki ileretensis are widely accepted to be closely related and ancestral to Eurasian Palaeoloxodon, the relationships of the other, chronologically earlier subspecies to P. recki recki, P. recki ileretensis and Palaeoloxodon are uncertain, with it being suggested they are unrelated and should be elevated to separate species.
The straight-tusked elephant is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. One of the largest known elephant species, mature fully grown bulls on average had a shoulder height of 4 metres (13 ft) and a weight of 13 tonnes (29,000 lb). Straight-tusked elephants likely lived very similarly to modern elephants, with herds of adult females and juveniles and solitary adult males. The species was primarily associated with temperate and Mediterranean woodland and forest habitats, flourishing during interglacial periods, when its range would extend across Europe as far north as Great Britain and Denmark and eastwards into Russia, while persisting in southern Europe during glacial periods. Skeletons found in association with stone tools and in one case, a wooden spear, suggest they were scavenged and hunted by early humans, including Homo heidelbergensis and their Neanderthal successors.
Anancus is an extinct genus of "tetralophodont gomphothere" native to Afro-Eurasia, that lived from the Tortonian stage of the late Miocene until its extinction during the Early Pleistocene, roughly from 8.5–2 million years ago.
Cuvieronius is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere which ranged from southern North America to western South America during the Pleistocene epoch. Among the last gomphotheres along with the South American Notiomastodon, it became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, approximately 12,000 years ago, following the arrival of humans to the Americas.
Mammuthus trogontherii, sometimes 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 1.8 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 and Columbian mammoth of the later Pleistocene.
Zygolophodon is an extinct genus of mammutid proboscidean that lived during the Miocene in Africa, Eurasia, and North America.
Notiomastodon is an extinct genus of gomphothere proboscidean, endemic to South America from the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene. Notiomastodon specimens reached a size similar to that of the modern Asian elephant, with a body mass of 3-4 tonnes. Like other brevirostrine gomphotheres such as Cuvieronius and Stegomastodon, Notiomastodon had a shortened lower jaw and lacked lower tusks, unlike more primitive gomphotheres like Gomphotherium.
Choerolophodon is an extinct genus of proboscidean that lived during the Miocene of Eurasia and Africa. Fossils of Choerolophodon have been found in Africa, Southeast Europe, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, the Indian subcontinent, and China.
Mammuthus rumanus is a species of mammoth that lived during the Pliocene in Eurasia. It the oldest mammoth species known outside of Africa.
Elephantiformes is a suborder within the order Proboscidea. Members of this group are primitively characterised by the possession of upper tusks, an elongated mandibular symphysis and lower tusks, and the retraction of the facial region of the skull indicative of the development of a trunk. The earliest known member of the group, Dagbatitherium is known from the Eocene (Lutetian) of Togo, which is only known from isolated teeth, while other primitive elephantiforms like Phiomia and Palaeomastodon are known from the Early Oligocene onwards. Phiomia and Palaeomastodon are often collectively referred to as "palaeomastodonts" and assigned to the family Palaeomastodontidae. Most diversity of the group is placed in the subclade Elephantimorpha, which includes mastodons, as well as modern elephants and gomphotheres (Elephantida). It is disputed as to whether Phiomia is closely related to both Mammutidae and Elephantida with Palaeomastodon being more basal, or if Palaeomastodon is closely related to Mammutidae and Phiomia more closely related to Elephantida.
Eozygodon is an extinct genus of proboscidean in the family Mammutidae. It is a monotypic genus that contains the single species E. morotoensis, named in 1983. It is known from the Early Miocene of Africa and well as possibly the Middle Miocene of China. It is considered a primitive member of the family, retaining a long lower jaw (longirostrine) with lower tusks. The upper tusks are small, and are only slightly divergent from each other. The skull of the young adult AM 02 from Auchas, Namibia, was around the size of that of a 10 year old American mastodon, around 60 centimetres (2.0 ft) in maximum length. Some authors suggest that Eozygodon could be less closely related to other members of Mammutidae than other mammutids are to Elephantida, making Mammutidae as typically defined paraphyletic.
The research history of Mammut is extensive given its complicated taxonomic and non-taxonomic histories, with the earliest recorded fossil finds dating back to 1705 in Claverack, New York during the colonial era of what is now the United States of America. Initially thought to belong to biblical antediluvian giants, the fossils were later determined to belong to a proboscidean species as a result of more complete 18th century finds from the locality of Big Bone Lick in what is now Kentucky. The molars were studied by European and American naturalists, who were generally baffled on its lack of analogue to modern elephants, leading to varying hypothesis on the affinities of the teeth. More complete skeletons were found after the independence of the United States colonies from Great Britain within the early 19th century. American historians of the 21st century have made arguments that the early history of M. americanum finds and studies played major roles in shaping American nationalism on the basis of the large sizes and relative completeness of the fossils to disprove the negative theory of social degeneracy in North America.
Tusks of "M." borsoni from Milia, Greece, which are the longest tusks ever found
Molar tooth
Lower jaw
