Health is wealthMammoths evolution
Mammoths evolved from an ancestral species called M Africanavus, the African mammoth. These mammoths lived in northern Africa and disappeared about 3 or 4 million years ago. Descendants of these mammoths moved North and eventually covered most of Eurasia. These were called M meridionalis. In the early Pleistocene, about 1.8 million years ago, M meridionalis took advantage of low sea levels (during an ice age) and crossed into North America via a temporary land bridge across the Bering Strait. The southern mammoth then radiated throughout North America. In the Middle Pleistocene, a new North American species evolved, the imperial mammoth, M imperator (though some question whether M imperator is a legitimate genus). Then, in the late Pleistocene, the Columbian mammoth, M columbi (also known as the Jefferson mammoth, M jeffersoni), appeared. And later in the Pleistocene, the woolly mammoth (M primigenius), which incidentally was the smallest of the mammoths, made its debut. Many believe that mammoths disappeared because of a change in climate, disease, hunting by humans, or perhaps some combination of these.
