Mammoth : Recent Study
Researchers in Siberia are conducting tests on a juvenile mammoth whose remarkably well-preserved remains were discovered in thawing permafrost after more than 50,000 years.
- Mammoths are member of an extinct species belongs to elephantid genus Mammuthus.
- They lived from the Pliocene epoch (from around 5 million years ago) into the Holocene at about 4,000 years ago.
- They existed in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.
- The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks.
- They evolved a suite of adaptations for arctic life, including morphological traits such as small ears and tails to minimize heat loss, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, long thick fur, and numerous sebaceous glands for insulation.
- They also had large brown-fat hump like deposit behind the neck that may have functioned as a heat source and fat reservoir during winter.
- Mammoths are more closely related to living Asian elephants than African elephants.
- IUCN Status: Extinct
