Mammuts

Mammuts, more commonly known as mammoths, are an extinct group of elephants in the genus Mammuthus, within the family Elephantidae. They lived during the Pleistocene and into the early Holocene, with the woolly mammoth (M. primigenius) and the steppe mammoth (M. trogontherii) among the best-known species. Mammoths evolved in Africa and later spread to Europe, Asia, and North America, adapting to a range of cold and temperate habitats.

Physically, mammoths were large, trunked herbivores equipped with tusks that in some species could exceed a meter in length. Many species had a thick fur coat and a substantial fat reserve to cope with cold environments. The woolly mammoth, in particular, is noted for its long shaggy hair, small ears, and hump of fat on the back, while other species varied in size and tusk shape.

Ecology: Mammoths occupied a variety of open habitats, from tundra and steppe to forest margins. They typically lived in social herds led by older females, and their diet consisted of grasses, shrubs, and other vegetation depending on season and region.

Extinction: Most mammoth populations disappeared from most regions at the end of the Pleistocene, around 11,000 years ago, though small populations survived on Wrangel Island and some Arctic islands into the early Holocene. Causes include climate warming reducing suitable habitat and human hunting. Fossil and subfossil remains have yielded extensive information about ice-age ecosystems, and mammoth ivory has long been used by human communities.