Mammuthus trogontherii
(Steppe Mammoth)
Name:
Mammuthus trogontherii
Phonetic: Mam-mu-fus troe-gon-fee-ree.
Named By: Pohlig - 1885.
Synonyms: Mammuthus armeniacus.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia,
Proboscidea, Elephantidae, Mammuthus.
Species: M. trogontherii.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Up to 4.7 meters high at the shoulder for
the largest known female. Males presumed to be slightly bigger like
in other species.
Known locations: Across Eurasia.
Time period: Ionian of the Pleistocene.
Fossil representation: Multiple specimens, but
often partial and incomplete.
Mammuthus
trogontherii, better known as the steppe mammoth, holds
an
important place for those who study mammoths as it is often treated as
a link between the early M.
meridionalis known as the southern
mammoth and the later M.
primigenius, more famously known as the
woolly mammoth. M. trogontherii however was
larger than both its
ancestor and descendent which suggests that a larger size was more
suitable for its period of the Pleistocene than the times preceding and
leading on from it.
With
large female specimens being gauged at four hundred and seventy
centimetres high, M. trogontherii is one of the
larger mammoths
known to have existed, with only M.
imperator and M.
sungari
being slightly larger. However the latter M. sungari
is today
treated as a dubious species of mammoth, with a 2010 analysis by
Wei et al. suggesting that the remains attributed
to this species are
actually those of M. trogontherii and M.
primigenius. Special
reference for this includes a five hundred and thirty centimetre high
composite skeleton of a M. sungari that the study
considers to be
directly atributable to M. trogontherii. If
true then the upper
size limit of M. trogontherii may increase to
match and possibly even
exceed that of M. imperator, making the steppe
mammoth possibly one
of the largest currently known mammoths.
Steppe
mammoths are known to have ranged across most of Eurasia wherever there
was open plains habitat to support the growth of grasses that seem to
have been the plants of choice for mammoths. Like with others of its
kind, the steppe mammoth had large broad teeth that were perfect for
grinding large amounts of grasses that would have been required to keep
its massive body going. The tusks of the steppe mammoth could grow as
long as five hundred and twenty centimetres, although these tusks
were strongly curved and as a result would not project out for this
distance. The tusks of bull (male) steppe mammoths seem to have
been the most elaborate with the tips curving round so much that they
would begin to point back towards the body.
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