| The Columbian mammoth was a plains dweller, favoring the open grasslands of the more southern portions of North America over the tundra environment which characterized the unglaciated portions of Canada. The Columbian Mammoth differed from the Woolly mammoth not only in size, but it is thought that the Columbian mammoth may also have been Hairless, or at least not as fully covered in hair as the Woolly mammoth was. This would have given the Columbian mammoth an appearence which was much closer to its present day extant relatives than its Woolly counterpart of the Pleistocene.
The Columbian mammoth is the descendant of the earlier species of mammoth, Mammuthus (Archidiskidon) meridonalis, which migrated to North America via Beringia approximately 1.7 million years ago. During the following interglacial period, the species gradually evolved into the Columbian mammoth, and since the interglacial period was warmer, it stands to reason that there may have been a reduction in body hair as part of that speciation process. |
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