Mammuthus primigenius (Woolly mammoth)

Mam-mu-fus prim-o-gen-e-us.
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Liam Carter

Paleoanthropologist

Liam Carter explores the roots of humanity by studying early human fossils and artifacts. His ground-breaking work has provided a deeper understanding of our ancestors' lifestyles and social structures.

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Name

Mammuthus primigenius

Phonetic

Mam-mu-fus prim-o-gen-e-us.

Named By

Classification

Chordata,‭ ‬Mammalia,‭ ‬Proboscidea,‭ ‬Elephantidae,‭ ‬Mammuthus.

Diet

Herbivore.

Species

Size

Large males up to‭ ‬3‭ ‬meters high at the shoulder.‭ Exceptionally large bulls (males) up to 3.4 meters high at the shoulder. ‘‬Dwarf‭’ ‬populations through insular dwarfism like those found on Wrangal Island between‭ ‬1.8‭ ‬and‭ ‬2.3‭ ‬meters at the shoulder.

Known locations

Eurasia/North America.

Time Period

‭L‬ate Ionian of the Pleistocene through to early Holocene.‭ ‬Some small populations survived to as recently as‭ ‬1700‭ ‬BP‭ (‬Before present‭)‬.

Fossil representation

Multiple remains,‭ ‬including bodies with full soft tissue preserved frozen in ice.

In Depth

Further Reading

– An Account of Elephants Teeth and Bones Found under Ground. – Philosophical Transactions 35 (399–406): 457–471. – H. Sloane – 1727-1728. Of Fossile Teeth and Bones of Elephants. Part the Second. – Philosophical Transactions 35 – (399–406): 497–514. – H. Sloane – 1727-1728. – A Letter from John Phil. Breyne, M. D. F. R. S. To Sir Hans Sloane, Bart. Pres. R. S. With Observations, and a Description of Some Mammoth’s Bones Dug up in Siberia, Proving Them to Have Belonged to Elephants. – Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 40 (445–451): 124. – J. P. Breyne & M. Wolochowicz – 1737. – M�moire sur les �p�ces d’elephans tant vivantes que fossils, lu � la s�ance publique de l’Institut National le 15 germinal, an IV. – Magasin encyclop�dique, 2e an�e 440–445. G. Cuvier – 1796. – A Contribution to the Morphology of the Mammoth, Elephas Primigenius Blumenbach; With an Explanation of My Attempt at a Restoration. – Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 326–334. – E. Pfitzenmayer – 1907. – Frozen Mammoths and Modern Geology: The death of the giants can be explained as a hazard of tundra life, without evoking catastrophic events. – Science 133 (3455): 729–735. – W. R. Farrand – 1961. – Hair structure of the Woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius and the modern elephants, Elephas maximus and Loxodonta africana. – Journal of Zoology 199 (2): 271–274. A. Valente – 1983. – Holocene dwarf mammoths from Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic. – Nature 362 (6418): 337. – S. L. Vartanyan, V. E. Garutt & A. V. Sher – 1993. – Contribution of isotopic biogeochemistry (13C,15N,18O) to the paleoecology of mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius). – Historical Biology 7 (3): 187. – H. Bocherens, M. Fizet, A. Mariotti, R. A. Gangloff, J. A. Burns – 1994. – The latest woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach) in Europe and Asia: A review of the current evidence. – Quaternary Science Reviews 21 (14–15): 1559 – A. J. Stuart, L. D. Sulerzhitsky, L. A. Orlova, Y. V. Kuzmin, A. M. Lister – 2002. – Structure and evolution of mammoth molar enamel. – Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 3 48: 383–396. M. P. Ferretti – 2003. – Radiocarbon evidence of mid-Holocene mammoths stranded on an Alaskan Bering Sea island. – Nature 429 (6993): 746–749. – r. Dale Guthrie – 2004. – Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics in giant deer and woolly mammoth. – Nature 431 (7009): 684–689.- A. J. Stuart, P. A. Kosintsev, T. F. G. Higham, A. M. Lister – 2004. – Sebaceous Glands of the Woolly Mammoth, Mammothus primigenius Blum.: Histological Evidence. – Doklady Biological Sciences 398: 382–384. – V. E. Repin, O. S. Taranov, E. I. Ryabchikova, A. N. Tikhonov, V. G. Pugachev – 2004. – Advances in proboscidean taxonomy & classification, anatomy & physiology, and ecology & behavior. – Quaternary International. 126–128 – J. Shoshani & P. Tassy – 2005. – 5,700-Year-Old Mammoth Remains from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska: Last Outpost of North America Megafauna. – Geological Society of America 37: 463. – K. S. Crossen – 2005. – Multiplex amplification of the mammoth mitochondrial genome and the evolution of Elephantidae. Nature 439 (7077): 724–727. – J. Krause, P. H. Dear, J. L. Pollack, M. Slatkin, H. Spriggs, I. Barnes, A. M. Lister, Ebersberger, S. P��bo, M. Hofreite – 2005. – The pattern and process of mammoth evolution in Eurasia. – Quaternary International. 126–128: 49. – A. M. Lister, A. V. Sher, H. Van Essen, G. Wei – 2005. – Mammoth tracks indicate a declining Late Pleistocene population in southwestern Alberta, Canada. – Quaternary Science Reviews 24 (10–11): 1253. – P. McNeil, L. Hills, B. Kooyman, S. Tolman – 2005. – The extinction of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) in Europe. – Quaternary International. 126–128: 171–177. – A. J. Stuart – 2005. – Nuclear Gene Indicates Coat-Color Polymorphism in Mammoths. – Science 313 (5783): 62. – H. Rompler, N. Rohland, C. Lalueza-Fox, E. Willerslev, T. Kuznetsova, G. Rabeder, J. Bertranpetit, T. Sch�neberg, M. Hofreiter – 2006. – Reading the Evolutionary History of the Woolly Mammoth in Its Mitochondrial Genome. – PLoS Biology 4 (3): e74. L. Gross – 2006. – AMS 14C chronology of the world’s southernmost woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.). – Quaternary Science Reviews 26 (7–8): 954. – K. Takahashi, G. Wei, H. Uno, M. Yoneda, C. Jin, C. Sun, S. Zhang, B. Zhong – 2007. – Intraspecific phylogenetic analysis of Siberian woolly mammoths using complete mitochondrial genomes. – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (24): 8327. – M. T. P. Gilbert, D. I. Drautz, A. M. Lesk, S. Y. W. Ho, J. Qi, A. Ratan, C-H. Hsu, A. Sher, L. Dalen, A. Gotherstrom, L. P. Tomsho, S. Rendulic, M. Packard, P. F. Campos, T. V. Kuznetsova, F. Shidlovskiy, A. Tikhonov, E. Willerslev, P. Iacumin, B. Buigues, P. G. P. Ericson, M. Germonpre, P. Kosintsev, V. Nikolaev, M. Nowak-Kemp, J. R. Knight, G. P. Irzyk, C. S. Perbost, K. M. Fredrikson, T. T. Harkins – 2008. – Out of America: Ancient DNA Evidence for a New World Origin of Late Quaternary Woolly Mammoths. – Current Biology 18 (17): 1320–1326. – R. Debruyne, G. Chu, C. E. King, K. Bos, M. Kuch, C. Schwarz, P. Szpak, D. R. Gr�cke, P. Matheus, G. Zazula, D. Guthrie, D. Froese, B. Buigues, C. De Marliave, C. Flemming, D. Poinar, D. Fisher, J. Southon, A. N. Tikhonov, R. D. E. MacPhee, H. N. Poinar – 2008. – Collection of radiocarbon dates on the mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) and other genera of Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, Russia. – Quaternary Research 70: 51. – S. L. Vartanyan, K. A. Arslanov, J. A. Karhu, G. R. Possnert, L. D. Sulerzhitsky – 2008. – Single carcass of Mammuthus primigenius with lithic artifacts in the Upper Pleistocene of northern Italy. – Journal of Archaeological Science 35 (9): 2606 – M. Mussi & P. Villa – 2008. – Climate Change, Humans, and the Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth. – In Barnosky, Anthony. PLoS Biology 6 (4): e79. – D. Nogu�s-Bravo, J. S. Rodr�guez, J. N. Hortal, P. Batra & M. B. Ara�jo – 2008. – What Killed the Woolly Mammoth? – PLoS Biology 6 (4): e99 – C. Sedwick – 2008. – Temporal genetic change in the last remaining population of woolly mammoth. – Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277 (1692): 2331. – V. Nystrom, L. Dalen, S. Vartanyan, K. Liden, N. Ryman, A. Angerbjorn – 2010. – Genomic DNA Sequences from Mastodon and Woolly Mammoth Reveal Deep Speciation of Forest and Savanna Elephants. – In Penny, David. PLoS Biology 8 (12): e1000564. – N. Rohland, D. Reich, S. Mallick, M. Meyer, R. E. Green, N. J. Georgiadis, A. Roca, M. – Hofreiter – 2010. – Substitutions in woolly mammoth hemoglobin confer biochemical properties adaptive for cold tolerance. – Nature Genetics 42 (6): 536–540. – K. L. Campbell, J. E. E. Roberts, L. N. Watson, J. R. Stetefeld, A. M. Sloan, A. V. Signore, J. W. Howatt, J. R. H. Tame, N. Rohland, T. J. Shen, J. J. Austin, M. Hofreiter, C. Ho, R. E. Weber & A. Cooper – 2010. – Nursing, weaning, and tooth development in woolly mammoths from Old Crow, Yukon, Canada: Implications for Pleistocene extinctions. – Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 298 (3–4): 257. J. Z. Metcalfe, F. J. Longstaffe, G. D. Zazula – 2010. – Palaeo-environmental and dietary analysis of intestinal contents of a mammoth calf (Yamal Peninsula, northwest Siberia). – Quaternary Science Reviews 30 (27–28) – B. Van Geel, D. C. Fisher, A. N. Rountrey, J. Van Arkel, J. F. Duivenvoorden, A. M. Nieman, G. B. A. Van Reenen, A. N. Tikhonov, B. Buigues, B. Gravendeel – 2011. – Complete Columbian mammoth mitogenome suggests interbreeding with woolly mammoths. – Genome Biology 12 (5): R51. – J. Enk, A. Devault, R. Debruyne, C. E. King, T. Treangen, D. O’Rourke, S. L. Salzberg, D. Fisher, R. MacPhee, H. Poinar – 2011. – Population-level genotyping of coat colour polymorphism in woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). – Quaternary Science Reviews 30 (17–18): 2304. – C. Workman, L. Dalen, S. Vartanyan, B. Shapiro, P. Kosintsev, A. Sher, A. Gotherstrom, I. Barnes – 2011. – Anatomy, death, and preservation of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) calf, Yamal Peninsula, northwest Siberia. – Quaternary International 255: 94. – D. C. Fisher, A. N. Tikhonov, P. A. Kosintsev, A. N. Rountrey, B. Buigues, J. Van Der Plicht – 2012. – Mammuthus primigenius in the cave and portable art: An overview with a short account on the elephant fossil record in Southern Europe during the last glacial. Quaternary International. 276-277: 61. – I. M. Braun & M. R. Palombo – 2012. – Environmental reconstruction inferred from the intestinal contents of the Yamal baby mammoth Lyuba (Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799). – Quaternary International 255: 231. – P. A. Kosintsev, E. G. Lapteva, S. S. Trofimova, O. G. Zanina, A. N. Tikhonov & J. Van Der Plicht – 2012. – Early tooth development, gestation, and season of birth in mammoths. – Quaternary International 255: 196. – A. N. Rountrey, D. C. Fisher, A. N. Tikhonov, P. A. Kosintsev, P. A. Lazarev, G. Boeskorov, B. Buigues – 2012. – Proteomic analysis of a Pleistocene mammoth femur reveals more than one hundred ancient bone proteins. – Journal of Proteome Research 11 (2): 917–926. – E. Cappellini, L. J. Jensen, D. Szklarczyk, A. L.Ginolhac, R. A. R. Da Fonseca, T. W. Stafford, S. R. Holen, M. J. Collins, L. Orlando, E. Willerslev, M. T. P. Gilbert, J. V. 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SPECIES SPOTLIGHT