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Steppe mammoth

March 04, 2023

Not to be confused with Mammoth steppe.

The steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii, sometimes Mammuthus armeniacus) is an extinct species of Elephantidae that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during the late Early and Middle Pleistocene, approximately 1.8 million-200,000 years ago. It evolved in Siberia during the Early Pleistocene from Mammuthus meridionalis. It was the ancestor of the woolly mammoth and Columbian mammoth of the later Pleistocene. Populations of steppe mammoth may have persisted in northern China and Mongolia as late as 33,000 years ago.

Steppe mammoth
Temporal range: Early-Mid Pleistocene 1.8–0.2 Ma
↓
 Possible Late Pleistocene record
Skeleton
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Genus: †Mammuthus
Species:
†M. trogontherii
Binomial name
†Mammuthus trogontherii
Hans Pohlig, 1885 [1]
Synonyms
  • Mammuthus sungari Zhou, M.Z, 1959
  • Mammuthus protomammonteus
  • Mammuthus trogontherii chosaricus

Taxonomy

 
Molar of Mammuthus trogontherii at the National Museum (Prague)

There is confusion about the correct scientific name for the steppe mammoth, either Mammuthus armeniacus (Falconer 1857) or Mammuthus trogontherii (Pohlig 1885). Falconer used material from Asian sources while Pohlig worked with fossil remains from Europe and both names appear in scientific publications, adding to the confusion. A first taxonomical overhaul was done by Maglio (1973) who decided that both names were synonyms, armeniacus being the older, hence the preferred name.[2] However, in Shoshani & Tassy (1996) it was decided that the description of Pohlig prevailed, and consequently the correct name for the steppe mammoth is M. trogontherii.[3] It is unclear whether both forms are indeed identical and authors tend to use the name M. trogontherii for European material and M. armeniacus for Asian remains.

Several Japanese mammoth varieties from the early Pleistocene have been named, but all are now thought to be synonyms of M. trogontherii.[4]

Genetics

DNA has been sequenced from two Siberian mammoth molars (which judging by morphology belong to the steppe mammoth); at over a million years old, this is the oldest ancient DNA ever recovered. The two genomes recovered belong to separate and distinct lineages: one is ancestral to the woolly mammoth, the other is a previously-unknown lineage. The latter lineage hybridized with woolly mammoths at least 420,000 years ago, giving rise to the Columbian mammoth.[5]

Description

 
Restoration

The steppe mammoth had a short skull compared with M. meridionalis as well as a smaller jaw. The males had spiral tusks with a recurved tip that could grow as long as 4.9 metres (16 ft) in old bulls; females on the other hand had thinner and slightly curved tusks.

With several individuals reaching 4 m (13.1 ft) tall at the shoulders,[6] it is smaller than the largest proboscideans ever to have lived (Palaeoloxodon namadicus reached 22 tonnes and shoulder heights of 5.2 metres (17.1 ft)), but was larger than other mammoths. A skeleton mounted on the Azov Museum reaches 4.5 m (14.8 ft) at the shoulder, though this figure might be overestimated because the vertebrae have been placed between the tips of the shoulder blades.[7] Another individual represented by a single humerus 1.46 m (4.8 ft) long[8] found in Mosbach Sande, Germany, is estimated to have an in-the-flesh shoulder height of 4.5 m (14.8 ft), weighed between 9–10 metric tons (9.9–11.0 short tons) and might be the largest mammoth found yet.[9] Another estimate gives a shoulder height of 3.89–4.5 m (12.8–14.8 ft) and a weight of 10.4–14.3 metric tons (11.5–15.8 short tons) for the species.[8]

Discovery

 
Size (green) compared with a human and other mammoths

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 was mounted, and put on display in 2005. The specimen is a female, which was about 3.7 metres (12.1 ft) high, 7 metres (23 ft) in length and with 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) long tusks.[10]

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 by Dick Mol and Frédéric Lacombat in the Musée Crozatier in Le Puy-en-Velay.[11]

In 1959 Zhou, M. Z described what he called a new species of mammoth, M. sungari,[12] that gained recent notoriety as the largest proboscidean due to a 5.3 metres (17.4 ft) tall and 9.1 metres (29.9 ft) long composite skeletal mount based on two individuals found in 1980. However, Wei et al. (2010), who restudied the fossils referred to M sungari, considered this species to be a junior synonym of M. trogontherii. The authors state that some of the fossils are referrable to M. trogontherii, while the others can be referred to M. primigenius, according to morphological characters and measurements.[13]

There are 8 skeletons in Russia museums, including 3 complete ones.[14] Recently one was discovered in Okhansk rayon, Perm kray.

Evolution

M. trogontherii is derived from Mammuthus meridionalis, the oldest records M. trogontherii are known from China, at around 1.8-2 million years ago, from the Nihewan Formation near Majuangou, Hebei. Steppe mammoths arrived in North America across Beringia around 1.5-1.3 million years ago, giving rise to the Columbian mammoth (the ancestor was previously thought to be M. meridionalis but this was due to misinterpretation of tooth wear patterns).[15] Steppe mammoths replaced Mammuthus meridionalis between 1-0.7 million years ago in Europe, in a complex diachronous mosaic pattern. European populations of M. trogontherii experienced a persistent size reduction towards the end of the Middle Pleistocene. A population of M. trogontherii in north east Siberia developed higher tooth plate count after 0.8 mya, reaching M. primigenius (woolly mammoth) morphology by 400,000 years ago.[16] Mammoths with M. primigenius type molar morphology displaced those of M. trogontherii type in Europe around 200,000 years ago (~MIS 7/6 boundary) in a highly complex pattern that likely reflects regional migration and introgression.[17] Relict populations of M. trogontherii may have persisted in Mongolia and North China well into the Last Glacial Period, with teeth of M. trogontherii like morphology in Shanxi being dated to 33,858–24,857 years BP and Inner Mongolia to c. 33,700 years BP.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Todd, N. E. (January 2010). "New Phylogenetic Analysis of the Family Elephantidae Based on Cranial-Dental Morphology". The Anatomical Record. Wiley-Liss, Inc. 293 (1): 74–90. doi:10.1002/ar.21010. PMID 19937636.
  2. ^ Maglio, V. J. (1973). "Origin and Evolution of the Elephantidae". Trans Am Philos Soc. 63 (3): 1–149. doi:10.2307/1006229. JSTOR 1006229.
  3. ^ Shoshani, J.; Tassy, P., eds. (1996). The Proboscidea : Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-854652-1.
  4. ^ van de Greer, Alexandra; Lyras, George; de Vos, John; Dermitzakis, Michael (2011). Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands (in Danish and English). John Wiley & Sons. p. 240. ISBN 978-1444391282.
  5. ^ van der Valk, Tom; Pečnerová, Patrícia; Díez-del-Molino, David; Bergström, Anders; Oppenheimer, Jonas; Hartmann, Stefanie; Xenikoudakis, Georgios; Thomas, Jessica A.; Dehasque, Marianne; Sağlıcan, Ekin; Fidan, Fatma Rabia (17 February 2021). "Million-year-old DNA sheds light on the genomic history of mammoths". Nature. 591 (7849): 265–269. Bibcode:2021Natur.591..265V. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03224-9. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 7116897. PMID 33597750.
  6. ^ Tikhonov, Alexei; Burlakov, Yuri (2008). "Causes of Northern Giants' Extinction". Science in Russia. Moscow: Nauka (2): 48–53. ISSN 0869-7078. OCLC 28131825.
  7. ^ Mol, Dick; van den Bergh, Gert D.; de Vos, John (May 17, 1999), "Fossil Proboscideans from The Netherlands, the North Sea and the Oosterschelde Estuary" (PDF), Mammoths and the Mammoth Fauna: Studies of an Extinct Ecosystem, Deinsea, vol. 6, p. 135, retrieved 15 August 2016
  8. ^ a b Larramendi, A. (2016). "Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 61. doi:10.4202/app.00136.2014.
  9. ^ Osborn, H. F. (1942). Proboscidea. Vol. II. New York: The American Museum Press. OCLC 505046548.
  10. ^ Milivojevic, Milos (2011). "Excavation, reconstruction and conservation of steppe elephant from the clay pit of the building material factory "Toza Markovic" at Kikinda (Serbia)" (PDF). Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, 2011, 4: 51-64. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  11. ^ Rincon, Paul (2 September 2008). "'Rare' mammoth skull discovered". BBC News. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
  12. ^ Zhou, M.Z., 1959. Proboscidea. In: Pleistocene mammalian fossils from the northeastern provinces: 22-34, pls. 6-15. Edited by Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
  13. ^ GuangBiao Wei, SongMei Hu, KeFu Yu, YaMei Hou, Xin Li, ChangZhu Jin, Yuan Wang, JianXin Zhao, WenHua Wang; Hu; Yu; Hou; Li; Jin; Wang; Zhao; Wang (2010). "New materials of the steppe mammoth, Mammuthus trogontherii, with discussion on the origin and evolutionary patterns of mammoths". Science China Earth Sciences. 53 (7): 956–963. Bibcode:2010ScChD..53..956W. doi:10.1007/s11430-010-4001-4. S2CID 129568366.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ http://www.interfax.ru/russia/454579
  15. ^ Lister, A. M.; Sher, A. V. (2015-11-13). "Evolution and dispersal of mammoths across the Northern Hemisphere". Science. 350 (6262): 805–809. Bibcode:2015Sci...350..805L. doi:10.1126/science.aac5660. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 26564853. S2CID 206639522.
  16. ^ Lister, Adrian M.; Sher, Andrei V.; van Essen, Hans; Wei, Guangbiao (January 2005). "The pattern and process of mammoth evolution in Eurasia". Quaternary International. 126–128: 49–64. Bibcode:2005QuInt.126...49L. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.014. ISSN 1040-6182.
  17. ^ Lister, Adrian M. (October 2022). "Mammoth evolution in the late Middle Pleistocene: The Mammuthus trogontherii-primigenius transition in Europe". Quaternary Science Reviews. 294: 107693. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107693.
  18. ^ Wei, GuangBiao; Hu, SongMei; Yu, KeFu; Hou, YaMei; Li, Xin; Jin, ChangZhu; Wang, Yuan; Zhao, JianXin; Wang, WenHua (2010-06-09). "New materials of the steppe mammoth, Mammuthus trogontherii, with discussion on the origin and evolutionary patterns of mammoths". Science China Earth Sciences. 53 (7): 956–963. Bibcode:2010ScChD..53..956W. doi:10.1007/s11430-010-4001-4. ISSN 1674-7313. S2CID 129568366.

Further reading

  • Benes, Josef (1979). Prehistoric Animals and Plants. London: Hamlyn. p. 271. ISBN 0-600-30341-1.
  • Augusti, Jordi; Anton, Mauricio (2002). Mammoths, Sabertooths and Hominids 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11640-3.
  • Lister, Adrian; Bahn, Paul (1997). Mammuts : Riesen der Eiszeit (in German). Sigmaringen: Thorbecke Verlag. ISBN 3-7995-9050-1.
  • Mol, Dick; Lacombat, Frédéric (2010). Mammoths & Mastodons of Haute-Loire. Drukware. p. 271. ISBN 978-2-911794-97-1. (English and French)

External links

  • The Kikinda mammoth

March 04, 2023
steppe, mammoth, confused, with, mammoth, steppe, steppe, mammoth, mammuthus, trogontherii, sometimes, mammuthus, armeniacus, extinct, species, elephantidae, that, ranged, over, most, northern, eurasia, during, late, early, middle, pleistocene, approximately, . Not to be confused with Mammoth steppe The steppe mammoth Mammuthus trogontherii sometimes Mammuthus armeniacus is an extinct species of Elephantidae that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during the late Early and Middle Pleistocene approximately 1 8 million 200 000 years ago It evolved in Siberia during the Early Pleistocene from Mammuthus meridionalis It was the ancestor of the woolly mammoth and Columbian mammoth of the later Pleistocene Populations of steppe mammoth may have persisted in northern China and Mongolia as late as 33 000 years ago Steppe mammothTemporal range Early Mid Pleistocene 1 8 0 2 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N Possible Late Pleistocene recordSkeletonScientific classificationKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass MammaliaOrder ProboscideaFamily ElephantidaeGenus MammuthusSpecies M trogontheriiBinomial name Mammuthus trogontheriiHans Pohlig 1885 1 SynonymsMammuthus sungari Zhou M Z 1959 Mammuthus protomammonteus Mammuthus trogontherii chosaricus Contents 1 Taxonomy 1 1 Genetics 2 Description 3 Discovery 4 Evolution 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksTaxonomy Edit Molar of Mammuthus trogontherii at the National Museum Prague There is confusion about the correct scientific name for the steppe mammoth either Mammuthus armeniacus Falconer 1857 or Mammuthus trogontherii Pohlig 1885 Falconer used material from Asian sources while Pohlig worked with fossil remains from Europe and both names appear in scientific publications adding to the confusion A first taxonomical overhaul was done by Maglio 1973 who decided that both names were synonyms armeniacus being the older hence the preferred name 2 However in Shoshani amp Tassy 1996 it was decided that the description of Pohlig prevailed and consequently the correct name for the steppe mammoth is M trogontherii 3 It is unclear whether both forms are indeed identical and authors tend to use the name M trogontherii for European material and M armeniacus for Asian remains Several Japanese mammoth varieties from the early Pleistocene have been named but all are now thought to be synonyms of M trogontherii 4 Genetics Edit DNA has been sequenced from two Siberian mammoth molars which judging by morphology belong to the steppe mammoth at over a million years old this is the oldest ancient DNA ever recovered The two genomes recovered belong to separate and distinct lineages one is ancestral to the woolly mammoth the other is a previously unknown lineage The latter lineage hybridized with woolly mammoths at least 420 000 years ago giving rise to the Columbian mammoth 5 Description Edit Restoration The steppe mammoth had a short skull compared with M meridionalis as well as a smaller jaw The males had spiral tusks with a recurved tip that could grow as long as 4 9 metres 16 ft in old bulls females on the other hand had thinner and slightly curved tusks With several individuals reaching 4 m 13 1 ft tall at the shoulders 6 it is smaller than the largest proboscideans ever to have lived Palaeoloxodon namadicus reached 22 tonnes and shoulder heights of 5 2 metres 17 1 ft but was larger than other mammoths A skeleton mounted on the Azov Museum reaches 4 5 m 14 8 ft at the shoulder though this figure might be overestimated because the vertebrae have been placed between the tips of the shoulder blades 7 Another individual represented by a single humerus 1 46 m 4 8 ft long 8 found in Mosbach Sande Germany is estimated to have an in the flesh shoulder height of 4 5 m 14 8 ft weighed between 9 10 metric tons 9 9 11 0 short tons and might be the largest mammoth found yet 9 Another estimate gives a shoulder height of 3 89 4 5 m 12 8 14 8 ft and a weight of 10 4 14 3 metric tons 11 5 15 8 short tons for the species 8 Discovery Edit Size green compared with a human and other mammoths 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 was mounted and put on display in 2005 The specimen is a female which was about 3 7 metres 12 1 ft high 7 metres 23 ft in length and with 2 7 metres 8 9 ft long tusks 10 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 by Dick Mol and Frederic Lacombat in the Musee Crozatier in Le Puy en Velay 11 In 1959 Zhou M Z described what he called a new species of mammoth M sungari 12 that gained recent notoriety as the largest proboscidean due to a 5 3 metres 17 4 ft tall and 9 1 metres 29 9 ft long composite skeletal mount based on two individuals found in 1980 However Wei et al 2010 who restudied the fossils referred to M sungari considered this species to be a junior synonym of M trogontherii The authors state that some of the fossils are referrable to M trogontherii while the others can be referred to M primigenius according to morphological characters and measurements 13 There are 8 skeletons in Russia museums including 3 complete ones 14 Recently one was discovered in Okhansk rayon Perm kray Evolution EditM trogontherii is derived from Mammuthus meridionalis the oldest records M trogontherii are known from China at around 1 8 2 million years ago from the Nihewan Formation near Majuangou Hebei Steppe mammoths arrived in North America across Beringia around 1 5 1 3 million years ago giving rise to the Columbian mammoth the ancestor was previously thought to be M meridionalis but this was due to misinterpretation of tooth wear patterns 15 Steppe mammoths replaced Mammuthus meridionalis between 1 0 7 million years ago in Europe in a complex diachronous mosaic pattern European populations of M trogontherii experienced a persistent size reduction towards the end of the Middle Pleistocene A population of M trogontherii in north east Siberia developed higher tooth plate count after 0 8 mya reaching M primigenius woolly mammoth morphology by 400 000 years ago 16 Mammoths with M primigenius type molar morphology displaced those of M trogontherii type in Europe around 200 000 years ago MIS 7 6 boundary in a highly complex pattern that likely reflects regional migration and introgression 17 Relict populations of M trogontherii may have persisted in Mongolia and North China well into the Last Glacial Period with teeth of M trogontherii like morphology in Shanxi being dated to 33 858 24 857 years BP and Inner Mongolia to c 33 700 years BP 18 See also Edit Paleontology portalElephas recki Mammuthus columbi Palaeoloxodon Paraceratherium West Runton MammothReferences Edit Todd N E January 2010 New Phylogenetic Analysis of the Family Elephantidae Based on Cranial Dental Morphology The Anatomical Record Wiley Liss Inc 293 1 74 90 doi 10 1002 ar 21010 PMID 19937636 Maglio V J 1973 Origin and Evolution of the Elephantidae Trans Am Philos Soc 63 3 1 149 doi 10 2307 1006229 JSTOR 1006229 Shoshani J Tassy P eds 1996 The Proboscidea Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 854652 1 van de Greer Alexandra Lyras George de Vos John Dermitzakis Michael 2011 Evolution of Island Mammals Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands in Danish and English John Wiley amp Sons p 240 ISBN 978 1444391282 van der Valk Tom Pecnerova Patricia Diez del Molino David Bergstrom Anders Oppenheimer Jonas Hartmann Stefanie Xenikoudakis Georgios Thomas Jessica A Dehasque Marianne Saglican Ekin Fidan Fatma Rabia 17 February 2021 Million year old DNA sheds light on the genomic history of mammoths Nature 591 7849 265 269 Bibcode 2021Natur 591 265V doi 10 1038 s41586 021 03224 9 ISSN 1476 4687 PMC 7116897 PMID 33597750 Tikhonov Alexei Burlakov Yuri 2008 Causes of Northern Giants Extinction Science in Russia Moscow Nauka 2 48 53 ISSN 0869 7078 OCLC 28131825 Mol Dick van den Bergh Gert D de Vos John May 17 1999 Fossil Proboscideans from The Netherlands the North Sea and the Oosterschelde Estuary PDF Mammoths and the Mammoth Fauna Studies of an Extinct Ecosystem Deinsea vol 6 p 135 retrieved 15 August 2016 a b Larramendi A 2016 Shoulder height body mass and shape of proboscideans PDF Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 61 doi 10 4202 app 00136 2014 Osborn H F 1942 Proboscidea Vol II New York The American Museum Press OCLC 505046548 Milivojevic Milos 2011 Excavation reconstruction and conservation of steppe elephant from the clay pit of the building material factory Toza Markovic at Kikinda Serbia PDF Bulletin of the Natural History Museum 2011 4 51 64 Retrieved 23 June 2012 Rincon Paul 2 September 2008 Rare mammoth skull discovered BBC News Retrieved 2 September 2008 Zhou M Z 1959 Proboscidea In Pleistocene mammalian fossils from the northeastern provinces 22 34 pls 6 15 Edited by Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Chinese Academy of Sciences China GuangBiao Wei SongMei Hu KeFu Yu YaMei Hou Xin Li ChangZhu Jin Yuan Wang JianXin Zhao WenHua Wang Hu Yu Hou Li Jin Wang Zhao Wang 2010 New materials of the steppe mammoth Mammuthus trogontherii with discussion on the origin and evolutionary patterns of mammoths Science China Earth Sciences 53 7 956 963 Bibcode 2010ScChD 53 956W doi 10 1007 s11430 010 4001 4 S2CID 129568366 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link http www interfax ru russia 454579 Lister A M Sher A V 2015 11 13 Evolution and dispersal of mammoths across the Northern Hemisphere Science 350 6262 805 809 Bibcode 2015Sci 350 805L doi 10 1126 science aac5660 ISSN 0036 8075 PMID 26564853 S2CID 206639522 Lister Adrian M Sher Andrei V van Essen Hans Wei Guangbiao January 2005 The pattern and process of mammoth evolution in Eurasia Quaternary International 126 128 49 64 Bibcode 2005QuInt 126 49L doi 10 1016 j quaint 2004 04 014 ISSN 1040 6182 Lister Adrian M October 2022 Mammoth evolution in the late Middle Pleistocene The Mammuthus trogontherii primigenius transition in Europe Quaternary Science Reviews 294 107693 doi 10 1016 j quascirev 2022 107693 Wei GuangBiao Hu SongMei Yu KeFu Hou YaMei Li Xin Jin ChangZhu Wang Yuan Zhao JianXin Wang WenHua 2010 06 09 New materials of the steppe mammoth Mammuthus trogontherii with discussion on the origin and evolutionary patterns of mammoths Science China Earth Sciences 53 7 956 963 Bibcode 2010ScChD 53 956W doi 10 1007 s11430 010 4001 4 ISSN 1674 7313 S2CID 129568366 Further reading EditBenes Josef 1979 Prehistoric Animals and Plants London Hamlyn p 271 ISBN 0 600 30341 1 Augusti Jordi Anton Mauricio 2002 Mammoths Sabertooths and Hominids 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe Columbia University Press ISBN 0 231 11640 3 Lister Adrian Bahn Paul 1997 Mammuts Riesen der Eiszeit in German Sigmaringen Thorbecke Verlag ISBN 3 7995 9050 1 Mol Dick Lacombat Frederic 2010 Mammoths amp Mastodons of Haute Loire Drukware p 271 ISBN 978 2 911794 97 1 English and French External links EditThe Kikinda mammoth Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Steppe mammoth amp oldid 1142163029, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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