| Steppe mammoth Temporal range: Mid Pleistocene |
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| Conservation status | |
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Prehistoric
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | Elephantidae |
| Genus: | Mammuthus |
| Species: | M. armeniacus |
| Binomial name | |
| Mammuthus armeniacus Falconer, 1857 |
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Mammuthus trogontherii Pohlig, 1888 |
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The steppe mammoth, Mammuthus armeniacus, is an extinct species of Elephantidae, that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during the Middle Pleistocene, 600,000-370,000 years ago.
The steppe mammoth probably evolved in Siberia during the early Pleistocene from Mammuthus meridionalis, which was replaced during the middle Pleistocene about 750,000 - 500,000 years ago. It was the first stage in the evolution of the steppe and tundra elephants and an ancestor of the woolly mammoth of the later glacial periods.
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Standing up to 4.70 m (15 ft) tall at the shoulder, it is among the largest proboscideans to have ever lived, along with other species of Eurasian mammoth, North American mammoth and Deinotherium. Its spiral-shaped tusks could be as long as 5.2 metres (17 ft) in old bulls. About 250.000 years ago, the woolly mammoth, which derived in northern Asia from the steppe mammoth, appeared in Europe, and replaced its progenitor completely.
Its skull was shorter than that of the great southern elephant. The males had spiral tusks with a recurved tip, while the females had thinner and only slightly curved tusks. The tusks grew to considerable lengths and the largest one known must have measured about 5 m. on a living animal.
Fossilized teeth are recovered, but skeletal parts are rare. The most complete skeleton of a steppe mammoth yet found was discovered in 1996 in Kikinda, Serbia. It has recently been mounted and put on display. The specimen is a female, which was about 4.7 metres (15 ft) high, with 3.5 metres (11 ft) long tusks, and would have weighed an estimated 7 tons when alive. This suggests even greater dimensions for males from the same area. It therefore seems that M. armeniacus is not only the biggest species of the genus Mammuthus, but is possibly among the biggest species in the order Proboscidea, rivaling in size not only Elephas recki and the Straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon but, perhaps, even Deinotherium itself.
Another quite complete steppe mammoth was excavated in the cliffs of West Runton in Norfolk, UK; it preserves its jaws and teeth but is missing the upper part of its skull. A rare skull found in Auvergne, France, in 2008 will be examined in the Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay.[2]
In 1959 Zhou, M.Z described a new species of Mammoth, M. sungari[3], recently believed to be the largest land mammal due to the size of a composite replica based on two individuals found in 1980, estimated at 5.3 metres (17 ft) tall, and 17 tonnes (19 short tons) in weight. However, Wei et al. (2010), who restudied the fossils referred to M sungari, considered this species to be a junior synonym of M. trogontherii (synonym of M. armeniacus ). The authors state that some of the fossils originally referred to M. sungari are referrable to M. trogontherii, while the others (such as the skeleton from Zhaoyuan County, Heilongjiang) can be referred to M. primigenius, according to morphological characters and measurements[4].