Mammuthus rumanus
{{Short description|Extinct species of mammal}}
{{Speciesbox
| fossil_range = Late Pliocene, {{fossil range|3.2|2.6}}
| image =
| image_caption =
| genus = Mammuthus
| species = rumanus
| authority = Ștefănescu, 1924
}}
Mammuthus rumanus is a species of mammoth that lived during the Pliocene in Eurasia. It the oldest mammoth species known outside of Africa.{{cite journal |last=Markov |first=Georgi N. |date=25 October 2012 |title=Mammuthus rumanus, early mammoths, and migration out of Africa: Some interrelated problems |journal=Quaternary International |volume=276–277 |pages=23–26 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2011.05.041|bibcode=2012QuInt.276...23M }}
Evolution
Mammuthus rumanus is suggested to have originated in Africa. Material intermediate between African mammoths and Mammuthus rumanus has been reported from Bethlehem in the Levant, dating to sometime in the Late Pliocene, around 3-4 million years ago.{{Cite journal |last1=Rabinovich |first1=Rivka |last2=Lister |first2=Adrian M. |date=July 2017 |title=The earliest elephants out of Africa: Taxonomy and taphonomy of proboscidean remains from Bethlehem |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618216308370 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=445 |pages=23–42 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2016.07.010|bibcode=2017QuInt.445...23R |url-access=subscription }} The oldest calibrated dates for Mammuthus rumanus and mammoths outside Africa are from Romania, dating to around 3.2 million years ago.{{Cite journal |last1=Iannucci |first1=Alessio |last2=Sardella |first2=Raffaele |date=28 February 2023 |title=What Does the "Elephant-Equus" Event Mean Today? Reflections on Mammal Dispersal Events around the Pliocene-Pleistocene Boundary and the Flexible Ambiguity of Biochronology |journal=Quaternary |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=16 |doi=10.3390/quat6010016 |issn=2571-550X |doi-access=free |hdl=11573/1680082 |hdl-access=free }} Remains have been reported spanning from Britain to China. It is probably ancestral to Mammuthus meridionalis.A.M. Lister, H. van Essen [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312990837 Mammuthus rumanus (Stefanescu), the earliest mammoth in Europe] A. Petculescu, E. Ştiucá (Eds.), Advances in Palaeontology ‘Hen to Panta’, Romanian Academy, ‘Emil Racovita’ Institut of Speleology, Bucharest (2003), pp. 47-52
Description
Ecology
Studies of specimens from Britain found that they likely consumed browse and inhabited open environments.{{Cite journal |last1=Rivals |first1=Florent |last2=Mol |first2=Dick |last3=Lacombat |first3=Frédéric |last4=Lister |first4=Adrian M. |last5=Semprebon |first5=Gina M. |date=August 2015 |title=Resource partitioning and niche separation between mammoths (Mammuthus rumanus and Mammuthus meridionalis) and gomphotheres (Anancus arvernensis) in the Early Pleistocene of Europe |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618214009860 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=379 |pages=164–170 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.031|bibcode=2015QuInt.379..164R |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Rivals |first1=Florent |last2=Semprebon |first2=Gina M. |last3=Lister |first3=Adrian M. |date=September 2019 |title=Feeding traits and dietary variation in Pleistocene proboscideans: A tooth microwear review |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379119302641 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=219 |pages=145–153 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.027|bibcode=2019QSRv..219..145R |s2cid=200073388 |url-access=subscription }} In Europe, it coexisted alongside other proboscideans, including the mastodon species "Mammut" borsoni and the "tetralophodont gomphothere" Anancus arvernensis, likely niche partitioning with the latter by occupying different habitats.
==References==
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