Reviewed by Benjamin Gutierrez
Benjamin Gutierrez is a leading expert on dinosaurs, particularly the mighty theropods. His fieldwork in South America has uncovered new species and provided insights into dinosaur social structures.
Name
Mammuthus subplanifrons, Loxodonta adaurora
Phonetic
Mam-mu-fus sub-plan-e-frons.
Named By
Henry Fairfield Osborn - 1928.
Classification
Chordata, Mammalia, Proboscidea, Elephantidae.
Diet
Herbivore.
Species
M. subplanifrons.
Size
Up tp 3.7 meters tall at the shoulder.
Known locations
Southeast Africa, including Ethiopia and South Africa.
Time Period
Zanclean of the Pliocene.
Fossil representation
Several specimens.
Not the most famous of the mammoths, M. subplanifrons still remains the earliest known species of the genus with some of the more famous species such as M. primigenius (woolly mammoth) and M. columbi (Columbian mammoth) not appearing until much later in the Pleistocene era.
The most obvious feature that reveals M. subplanifrons to be a mammoth are the spirally twisting tusks that can be spotted even with a casual glance.
SPECIES SPOTLIGHT
