From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A
mammoth
is any species of the extinct elephantid genus
Mammuthus
.
The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks.
They lived from the Pliocene epoch into the Holocene about 4,000 years ago, and various species existed in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.
Mammoths are more closely related to living Asian elephants than African elephants.
The term mammoth may refer to a number of organisms, but is used here to describe the hairy
proboscidean
of the genus
Mammuthus
. They lived in
Europe
until 4,500 years ago, and were
adapted
to cold
climate
. They were killed off by
hunters
and
climate change
.
They lived in the
Pliocene
and
Pleistocene
epochs.
[1]
[2]
In the Pleistocene, northern Europe was covered with
ice
and
tundra
. There were a series of
ice ages
, which allowed the mammoths to spread across the land.
Mammoths were hunted by early humans, who used
spears
, and cut them up with
hand axes
. Their frozen flesh has been analysed for its
DNA sequence
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Media related to
Mammuthus
at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to
Mammuthus
at Wikispecies