Extinct Columbian (Mammuthus columbi) and Channel Island (M. exilis) Mammoths Fact Sheet: Summary

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Proboscidea (mammoths, mastodonts, shovel-tuskers, modern elephants)

Family: Elephantidae (Asian and African elephants, mammoths)

Genus: Mammuthus                            

Species: Mammuthus columbi - Columbian Mammoth

Species: Mammuthus exilis - Channel Island Mammoth, Dwarf or Pygmy Mammoth

Body Weight
Columbian Mammoth: 5,000-10,000 kg (5.5-11 tons)
Channel Island Mammoth: 200-500 kg (0.2 - 0.6 tons)

Body Length
Columbian Mammoth: 4-4.5 m (13-14.7 ft)
Channel Island Mammoth: 160-200 cm (5.2-6.6 ft)

Shoulder Height
Columbian Mammoth: 3.7-4.3 m (12-14 ft)
Channel Island Mammoth: 120-180 cm (3.9-5.9ft)

Pelage
Unknown, but assumed to have some similarities to modern elephants

Range
North America from Canada to central Mexico; Channel Islands

Habitat
Extremely varied habitats; riparian, dune, grassland, to steppe-tundra; from sea level to high elevation mountains

Status
Went extinct about 13,000 years ago

Social Groups
Assumed to be broadly similar to living elephants; evidence of living in herds and all male groups. Also, evidence of adults protecting young.

Diet
Opportunistic grazing and browsing. Evidence of plants and fruits, including grasses, pondweed, raspberries, oak, and cactus.

Predators
Juvenile M. columbi: sabertooth cat, Homotherium
Adult mammoths: No predators other than human hunters living more than 13,000 years ago.

Life stages
Calves may have stayed with mothers for 5-6 years or more.
In one study, a male's reproductive period may have approached 10-13 years of age.

Feature Facts

• Mammoths are medium to large-sized extinct elephants
• All mammoths had strongly curved and twisted tusks; grew throughout their lifetime
• Human hunters and climate change are causes most often suggested for the extinction of most of the mammoths around 13,000 years ago
• Small Channel Island Mammoths occupied what are now island remnants of a larger Pleistocene island
• An old mammoth, more than 60 years of age, shown to have arthritis and bone loss
• At a fossil site in Waco, Texas where many individuals became trapped in a hypothesized flash flood; two juveniles died, held in the tusks of the adults, as if they were being lifted above the water to safety