Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair. Like their modern relative the elephant (Asian or African), mammoths were quite large; in English the noun "mammoth" has become an adjective meaning "large" or "massive". The largest known species, Songhua River mammoth reached heights of at least 16 feet at the shoulder. Mammoths would weigh in the region of 6 to 8 tons, but exceptionally large males may have exceeded 12 tons. However, most species of mammoth were only about as large as a modern Asian elephant. Dwarf fossils of species of mammoth found on the Californian Channel Islands and the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. There was also a race of dwarf woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island, north of Siberia, within the Arctic Circle. Based on studies of their close relatives the modern elephants, mammoths probably had a gestation period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born. Their social structure was probably the same as that of African and Asian elephants, with females living in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity. The woolly mammoth was the last species of the genus. Most populations of the woolly mammoth in North America and Eurasia, as well all the Columbian mammoths in North America, died out around the time of the last glacial retreat, as part of a mass extinction of mega fauna in northern Eurasia and the Americas. Until recently, it was that the last woolly mammoths vanished from Europe and southern Siberia about 10,000 BC, but new findings show that some were still present there about 8000 BC. Only slightly later, the woolly mammoths also disappeared from continental northern Siberia. A small population survived on St. Paul Island, Alaska, up until 3,750 BC, and the small mammoths of Wrangel Island survived until 1,650 BC. The definitive explanation for their mass extinctions is not available. The warming trend that occurred 12,000 years ago accompanied by a glacial retreat and rising sea levels, suggested as a contributing factor. Forests replaced open woodlands and grasslands across the continent. The available habitat reduced for some mega faunal species, such as the mammoth. However, such climate changes were nothing new; numerous very similar warming episodes had occurred previously within the ice age of the last several million years without producing comparable mega faunal extinctions, so climate alone is unlikely to have played a decisive role.