MAMMOTHS

Genus Mammoths:

The genus mammoths, in latin Mammuthus, was a group of species, belonging to the family of elephants, entirely separated in taxonomy from the Mastodons and the genus family Mammutidae, although they sometimes shared the same envoronment. (For scientific reasons, the mastodons was renamed to family Mammutidae, which became a source for future confusion and misunderstandings). The Mammoths probably has origin from Stegodon and started to develop during upper Pliocene, (some 4 million years ago) in africa, spred to europe and asia, and Mammuthus meridionalis went over Bering Strait to north america about 1.8 million years ago, (the wooly Mammoth went over much later) and became extinct during lower Holocene, probaby exterminated by prehistoric humans who hunted elephants and Mammoths and made huts and houses out of their bones.

Caracters of Mammoths :

• They had bumps on their head .

• Both sexes had tusks .

• Some tusks were straight, some were curved .

• The longest tusks were up to 13 feet (4 m) long .

• Mammoths had longer tusks than Mastodons, a wider head, a sloping back and flat chewin

teeth .

• Their trunk had two finger-like projections like african elephants .

• Their teeth were flat like asian elephants .

• Most species was not larger than recent elephants .