Article
Article
Mammoth
Article By:
Gillette, David D. Geology and Paleontology Department, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona.
Last reviewed:July 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.402750
A lineage of true elephants in the extinct genus Mammuthus that occupied Eurasia and North America in the late Cenozoic Era. Mammoths (genus Mammuthus) are extinct elephants assigned to the mammalian order Proboscidea (Fig. 1). They inhabited Eurasia and North America in the Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene epochs in the late Cenozoic Era, starting at approximately 3 million years ago. Mammoths are the largest examples of extinct Ice Age megafauna. Modern elephants in Africa and Asia are smaller relatives of mammoths. Until the great Ice Age extinctions reached a climax around 11,000 years ago, mammoths and humans lived together throughout Asia and Europe and, for a shorter interval, in North America. See also: Cenozoic; Elephant; Extinction; Holocene; Paleontology; Pleistocene; Pliocene; Proboscidea
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