A reconstruction of a Mammuthus columbi, the Columbian mammoth. The Columbian is one of the largest mammoth species.
Credit: Wikimedia
From the zebra-sized dwarf mammoth to the hefty and controversial Songhua River mammoth, the members of the extinct genus Mammuthus came in many different shapes and sizes. Here's a glimpse of the ancient pachyderms that were plodding their way through the Ice Age.
Southern African mammoth
The Southern African mammoth is believed to be the ancestral species of all the mammoths. They lived in northern Africa and disappeared about 3 or 4 million years ago.
Scientific name: Mammuthus subplanifrons
Range: Northern Africa
Height: Between 3 and 4 m at the shoulder.
Weight: Between 6000 kg and 9000 kg
Diet: Specifics are not known, but likely vegetarian.
Distinguishing features: Said to be the ancestral species of mammoth.
African mammoth
One of the first mammoth species, they lived in Northern Africa and disappeared about 2 million years ago.
Scientific name: Mammuthus africanavus
Range: Northern Africa
Height: About 4 m at the shoulder.
Weight: 9000 kg
Diet: Specifics are not known, but likely vegetarian.
Distinguishing features: Unlike most mammoth species, the African mammoth referred to live in warm, tropical forests.
Columbian mammoth
British geologist and botanist Hugh Falconer first recognised the Columbian mammoth as a distinct species in 1857. But there is strong evidence that a species called the imperial mammoth and the Columbian mammoth may be the same.
Scientific name: Mammuthus columbi
Range: The southern half of North America and south into Mexico.
Height: Between 3 and 4 m at the shoulder
Weight: About 9000 kg.
Diet: Primarily grasses, sedges and rushes, but also included wooded plants.
Distinguishing features: Impressive, spiralled tusks up to 4.9 m long.
Pygmy mammoth
The pygmy mammoth is believed to have evolved from Columbian mammoths that migrated to the Channel Islands about 40,000 to 20,000 years ago. The most complete pygmy mammoth skeleton was excavated on Santa Rosa Island in California’s Channel Islands in 1994.
Scientific name: Mammuthus exilis
Range: California’s Channel Island.
Height: From 1.5 and 2 m at the shoulder.
Weight: About 900 kg.
Diet: Grasses.
Distinguishing features: At just 2 m in height, this species was unusually small.
Woolly mammoth
Perhaps the most well known of the mammoth species, woolly mammoths were the first of the mammoth species to be described, by German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1799.
Scientific name: Mammuthus primigenius
Range: Started in Eurasia and eventually migrated to North America, as far south as present-day Kansas.
Height: About 3 m at the shoulder.
Weight: Between 4000 and 6000 kg.
Diet: Coarse steppe-tundra grasses and other low vegetation.
Distinguishing features: Tiny ears, short tails and a thick coat of dark brown hair that grew up to one-metre-long on their belly to help them survive in freezing temperatures.
