Description

Huge Mammoth Tooth.  This tooth weighs seventeen pounds and is in very solid and great condition.  There are more mastodon fossils found in Florida than mammoth fossils.

Mammoth

The latest research indicates that the only two species of mammoth in Florida. They were the Mammuthus haroldcooki or early mammoth and the later columbi. The widely known Woolly Mammoth is now thought to have ventured no farther south than present-day North Carolina. Also, some leading scientists now believe that some mammoths may have survived much later than previously though. Perhaps as recent as 4000 years ago.

Woolly Mammoth

The woolly mammoth is a species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, which began with Mammuthus subplanifrons in the early Pliocene.

The woolly mammoth was roughly the same size as modern African elephants. Males reached shoulder heights between 2.7 and 3.4 m (8.9 and 11.2 ft) and weighed up to 6 tons (6.6 short tons). Females averaged 2.6–2.9 m (8.5–9.5 ft) in height and weighed up to 4 tons (4.4 short tons). A newborn calf weighed about 90 kilograms (200 lb).

The woolly mammoth was well adapted to the cold environment during the last ice age. It was covered in fur, with an outer covering of long guard hairs and a shorter undercoat. The color of the coat varied from dark to light. The ears and tail were short to minimize frostbite and heat loss. It had long, curved tusks and four molars, which were replaced six times during the lifetime of an individual. Its behavior was similar to that of modern elephants, and it used its tusks and trunk for manipulating objects, fighting, and foraging. The diet of the woolly mammoth was mainly grass and sedges. Individuals could probably reach the age of 60. Its habitat was the mammoth steppe, which stretched across northern Eurasia and North America.