Named By: | Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1928 |
Time Period: | Early Pliocene |
Location: | Southeast Africa, including Ethiopia and South Africa |
Size: | Unavailable |
Diet: | Herbivore |
Fossil(s): | Several specimens |
Classification: | | Chordata | Mammalia | Proboscidea | Elephantidae | |
Mammuthus subplanifrons, or the South African mammoth, is the oldest representative of the genus Mammuthus, appearing around 5 million years ago during the early Pliocene in what is today South Africa and countries of East Africa, especially Ethiopia. They already presented some of the unique characteristics of mammoths like the spirally, twisting tusks. It was 3.68 metres (12.1 ft) tall at the shoulder and weighed about 9 tonnes (8.9 long tons; 9.9 short tons).