Mammuthus meridionalis

Mammuthus meridionalis
Mammuthus meridionalis
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene
Skeleton of Mammuthus meridionalis, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris
Conservation status
Prehistoric
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Genus: Mammuthus
Species: M. meridionalis
Binomial name
Mammuthus meridionalis
(Nesti, 1825)

Mammuthus meridionalis is an extinct species of mammoth endemic to Europe and central Asia from the Pleistocene, living from 2.5–0.126 mya existing for approximately 2.374 million years.[1]

Restoration
Mammuthus meridionalis molar

With a height of 4.50 m (15 ft), M. meridionalis is one of the largest proboscids to have ever lived, along with other larger species of mammoth, and the earlier Deinotherium. M. meridionalis was one of the first species of mammoths and resembled a huge Asian elephant with larger tusks. It would have been adapted to a cool climate, but not to truly icy conditions, and may have been the ancestor of later, more specialised, species such as the woolly mammoth.[2]

A well-preserved skeleton of Mammuthus meridionalis that is believed to be about one million years old has been unearthed in Kostolac, Serbia near the Viminacium archeological site.[3]

References

  1. ^ PaleoBiology Database: Mammuthus meridionalis, basic info
  2. ^ Palmer, D., ed (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 244. ISBN 1-84028-152-9. 
  3. ^ http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/04/preserved-mammoth.html

External links

Media related to Mammuthus meridionalis at Wikimedia Commons