Pygmy mammoth
The pygmy mammoth or Channel Islands mammoth (Mammuthus exilis) is an extinct species of dwarf elephant native to the northern Channel Islands off the coast of California. It was descended from the Columbian mammoth (M. columbi) of mainland North America.
| Pygmy mammoth Temporal range: Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene, | |
|---|---|
| Skeleton at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History | |
| Model of a pygmy mammoth (front) at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | Elephantidae |
| Genus: | †Mammuthus |
| Species: | †M. exilis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Mammuthus exilis (Stock & Furlong, 1928) | |
A case of island or insular dwarfism, from a recent analysis in 2010 it was determined that M. exilis was on average, 1.72–2.02 m (5.6–6.6 ft) tall at the shoulders and 760–1,350 kg (1,680–2,980 lb) in weight, in stark contrast to its 3.72–4.2 m (12.2–13.8 ft) tall, 9.2–12.5 t (9.1–12.3 long tons; 10.1–13.8 short tons) ancestor.
This species became extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene during the Quaternary extinction event in which many megafauna species became extinct due to changing conditions to which the species could not adapt.