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The illustrious Columbian mammoth — an 11 - ton creature known for track North America during the last frappe geezerhood — might actually be the same species as the Eurasian steppe mammoth , a Modern survey find .
The discovery suggest that the first mammoth to enter North America was the Eurasian steppe mammoth , and not its ascendant , a European creature calledMammuthus meridionalis . The two species differed greatly — the steppe mammoth had many more adaptations to living in cold weather .
The European mammoth species,Mammuthus meridionalis, likely never made it to North America, a new study finds.
The finding help oneself to rewrite the news report of the development of the mammoth in North America , said study carbon monoxide - investigator Adrian Lister , a research leader of paleontology at the Natural History Museum in London . [ Image Gallery : sensational Mammoth Unearthed ]
But to understand the latest growing , it ’s important to explain the history of mammoth evolution , Lister read . Mammoths first emerged in Africa about 5 million year ago and moved into Europe about 3 million years ago , before spreading across Asia . When the mammoth first reached Eurasia , they were " still a forest - bread and butter , ardent - clime variety of elephant coinage , " Lister tell Live Science . " And then , through about 2 [ million ] or 3 million years of phylogenesis , they turned into the intimate lanate mammoth of the ice age . "
However , former research suggests that one of these fond - climate mammoths , the EuropeanMammuthus meridionalis , made the farseeing trek across theBering Strait realm bridgeabout 1.5 million years ago . It was thought that once it reached North America , the behemoth cave in ascent to the famous Columbian mammoth ( Mammuthus columbi ) , which had a stomping ground that ranged from Canada to central Mexico , Lister said .
The Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) lived in North America during the Pleistocene.
But there ’s only shaky evidence that this European mammoth dwell in North America , he enounce . Researchers ground much of their findings on mammoth tooth , as the rest of the systema skeletale is n’t always preserved or hear . Whenever an equivocal — or less developed — mammoth tooth is base in North America , scientist typically assign it to the European mammoth mintage , Lister suppose .
But these teeth may just take care less developed because they areworn down from chewing , and were in all likelihood more complex in the mammoth ’s youthfulness , Lister say .
" When you look at these drawn teeth , they look more crude than they really are , " he say . Most of the more complex teeth are attribute to the Columbian mammoth , but it ’s possible that these worn tooth belong to to the Columbian , too , he suppose .
The tusks of a steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii), which is likely the same species as the Columbian mammoth, experts say.
Fossil evidence
The fogey record seems to tolerate this idea . There are no known fossils belonging to the European mammoth in northeastern Siberia or Alaska , " suggesting that this temperate - adapted species never dispersed as far north as the Beringian transit route , " the researchers compose in the study .
But researchers found the remains of thesteppe mammoth(Mammuthus trogontherii ) in northeastChinadating to 1.7 million years ago , and in northeasterly Siberia dating to 1.2 million to 0.8 million year ago , Lister said . This makes the steppe mammoth a just prospect for the 1.5 - million - year - old crossing into North America , he add .
Moreover , after a late trip in which he analyzed hundreds of mammoth specimens ( mostly tooth ) in museum across the United States , Lister came to the realization that the steppe and the Columbian mammoth are potential the same specie . [ Photos : A 40,000 - Year - Old Mammoth Autopsy ]
" When we equate these steppe mammoth from Asia with the American Columbian mammoth , we rule that they were most very , " Lister say . " The young idea is that this advanced mammoth really evolved in Siberia and just go over to North America , where it ’s called the Columbian mammoth , but it ’s really more of the same affair . "
He joked that because the Columbian mammoth was named in 1857 , almost 30 years before the steppe mammoth was named in 1885 , technically all of these mammoths should follow the nameMammuthus columbi .
This is a very " embarrassing name " for European scientist , who are used to calling itMammuthustrogontherii , Lister tell , laughing . Only time will evidence how long that change will take , he said .
The researchers also reported that theEurasian woolly mammoth(Mammuthus primigenius ) later followed the steppe / Columbian mammoth into North America , but lived further northward , in the colder areas of southern Canada and the northern continental United States . However , the Eurasian woolly mammoth ’s mountain chain overlapped with its congeneric , in all likelihood lead to interbreeding that birthed intercrossed species , includingMammuthusjeffersonii , Lister said .
The study demo a compelling shell that the steppe / Columbian mammoth was the first to reach North America , say Daniel Fisher , a University of Michigan fossilist who was not postulate in the young study .
However , it ’s impossible to say whether the wear - down teeth belong to anearlier or more forward-looking species , simply because there are few identifying machine characteristic on them , Fisher enunciate . " [ But ] I ’m happy enough to take this as the good statement , the unspoilt call of what is likely conk on , " he said .
Lister atomic number 27 - authored the cogitation with Andrei Sher , a paleontologist with the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution in Moscow , who died in 2007 before the survey ’s pass completion . The determination were published online today ( Nov. 12 ) in thejournal Science .
