Extinct elephants

What is a mammoth?

A mammoth, in Britannica wording, is any member of an extinct group of elephants (genus Mammuthus) found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits over every continent except Australia and South America and in early Holocene deposits of North America. Britannica The Pleistocene Epoch began 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago. The Holocene Epoch began 11,700 years ago and continues through the present. Britannica

A woolly mammoth, in Britannica wording, is an extinct species of elephant, Mammuthus primigenius, found in fossil deposits of the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs (from about 2.6 million years ago to the present) in Europe, northern Asia, and North America. Britannica The species is named for the appearance of its long thick coat of fur. Thriving during the Pleistocene ice ages, woolly mammoths died out after much of their habitat was lost as Earth’s climate warmed in the aftermath of the last ice age. Britannica

Mammoths don’t just look like elephants — they were elephants. Modern elephants and mammoths both belong to the elephant family, Elephantidae. Prehistoric mammoths didn’t evolve into modern-day elephants; they are cousins. Natural History Museum Elephantidae arose in Africa about seven million years ago and quickly split into three branches. One led to modern African elephants, another to Asian elephants and the third split off and became mammoths — the genus Mammuthus. Natural History Museum Asian elephants are mammoths’ closest relatives. Natural History Museum Mammoths are closely related to present-day Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), and these groups broke away from their last common ancestor about six million years ago. Britannica

The Natural History Museum’s mammoth expert Professor Adrian Lister talks through research findings and the warning they sound for the future of mammoths’ living relatives, African and Asian elephants. Natural History Museum

The living look, and the species that came before the woolly mammoth, are on the relatives page. Size, coat and tusks are on look.