Mammuthus primigenius, or the woolly mammoth is a species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. His environment stretched across northern Asia, many parts of Europe, and the northern part of North America during the last ice age.
The woolly mammoth coexisted with early humans, who used its bones and tusks for making art, tools, and dwellings, and hunted for food. It disappeared from its mainland range at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 years ago. Isolated populations survived on St. Paul Island until 5,600 years ago and on Wrangel Island until 4,000 years ago.
The mammoth was identified as an extinct species of elephant by Georges Cuvier in 1796, who named it Elephas mammonteus. For a while it was also called Elephas primigenius by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1799, Mammuthus boreus by Brookes 1828, Mammonteus primigenius by Osborn and Elephas boreus by Hay in 1924.
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