One could make a case that the hairy elephant is not the better known woolly mammoth but the Columbian mammoth (M. columbi) that was bigger and lived in a temperate climate south of the tundra inhabited by the woolly mammoth. Interestingly, while the Columbian mammoth is often pictured as hairless or near hairless like an elephant to account for this (and I think the image in the article is in fact of a Columbian mammoth for this reason), this is purely speculative since I don't think there are preserved skins like those of woolly mammoths, yet a 2007 study of Columbian mammoth dung (no kidding) from Utah found hair on it.Eljuma (talk) 02:41, March 15, 2013 (UTC)
- I suppose it's possible. Both species did make in-roads into the continental U.S. The primary reason we've gone with the wooly kind is that Turtledove made a point of calling them "hairy elephants", that is to say, "wooly".
- The image from the article is was swiped from somewhere or other, so that's not necessarily meant to advocate a position. TR (talk) 05:10, March 15, 2013 (UTC)
Taxonomy[]
To clarify:
Elephantidae is a family with:
- genus Mammuthus which includes the extinct woolly mammoths and mastodons.
- genus Loxodonta and species africana i.e. the African elephant.
- genus Elephas and species maximus i.e. the Asian elephant.