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The Pygmy or Channel Islands Mammoth (Mammuthus exilis) is an extinct species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 of dwarf elephant
Dwarf elephant

Fossil remains of dwarf elephants have been found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta , Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese Islands....
 descended from the Columbian mammoth
Columbian Mammoth

The 'Columbian Mammoth' is an extinct species of elephant that appeared in North America during the late Pleistocene, It is believed by some people to be the same species as its slightly larger cousin, M....
 (M. columbi). A case of island or insular dwarfism
Insular dwarfism

Insular dwarfism, a form of Phyletic dwarfism , is the process and condition of the reduction in size of large animals ? almost always mammals ? when their gene pool is limited to a very small environment, primarily islands....
, M. exilis was only to tall at the shoulder and weighed about , in contrast to its tall, ancestor.

Remains of M. exilis have been discovered on three of the northern Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California

The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America....
 since 1856: Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Island

File:Santa Cruz Island.jpgSanta Cruz Island was the largest privately owned island off the continental United States, but is currently part-owned by the National Park service ....
, Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa Island

There are at least two islands named Santa Rosa Island:*Santa Rosa Island, California, one of the Channel Islands*Santa Rosa Island, Florida...
, and San Miguel
San Miguel Island

San Miguel Island is the westernmost of California's Channel Islands and the sixth-largest of the eight at , including offshore islands and rocks....
, which together with Anacapa
Anacapa Island

Anacapa Island is a small volcanic island located about 14 miles off the coast of Ventura, California, in Ventura County.Anacapa is part of the Channel Islands archipelago , and is part of the Channel Islands National Park....
 were the highest portions of the now mostly submerged superisland of Santarosae
Santa Rosae

Santa Rosae was an ancient landmass off the coast of present-day southern California, near Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, of which the northern Channel Islands of California are remnants....
.






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The Pygmy or Channel Islands Mammoth (Mammuthus exilis) is an extinct species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 of dwarf elephant
Dwarf elephant

Fossil remains of dwarf elephants have been found on the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus, Malta , Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese Islands....
 descended from the Columbian mammoth
Columbian Mammoth

The 'Columbian Mammoth' is an extinct species of elephant that appeared in North America during the late Pleistocene, It is believed by some people to be the same species as its slightly larger cousin, M....
 (M. columbi). A case of island or insular dwarfism
Insular dwarfism

Insular dwarfism, a form of Phyletic dwarfism , is the process and condition of the reduction in size of large animals ? almost always mammals ? when their gene pool is limited to a very small environment, primarily islands....
, M. exilis was only to tall at the shoulder and weighed about , in contrast to its tall, ancestor.

Remains of M. exilis have been discovered on three of the northern Channel Islands of California
Channel Islands of California

The Channel Islands of California are a chain of eight islands located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California along the Santa Barbara Channel in the United States of America....
 since 1856: Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Island

File:Santa Cruz Island.jpgSanta Cruz Island was the largest privately owned island off the continental United States, but is currently part-owned by the National Park service ....
, Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa Island

There are at least two islands named Santa Rosa Island:*Santa Rosa Island, California, one of the Channel Islands*Santa Rosa Island, Florida...
, and San Miguel
San Miguel Island

San Miguel Island is the westernmost of California's Channel Islands and the sixth-largest of the eight at , including offshore islands and rocks....
, which together with Anacapa
Anacapa Island

Anacapa Island is a small volcanic island located about 14 miles off the coast of Ventura, California, in Ventura County.Anacapa is part of the Channel Islands archipelago , and is part of the Channel Islands National Park....
 were the highest portions of the now mostly submerged superisland of Santarosae
Santa Rosae

Santa Rosae was an ancient landmass off the coast of present-day southern California, near Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, of which the northern Channel Islands of California are remnants....
. The late Pleistocene
Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
 elephant may have lived on the islands until the arrival of the Chumash people during the early Holocene
Holocene

The Holocene is a geological Epoch which began approximately 11,700 years ago . According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present....
, between 10,800 and 11,300 years ago. Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon dating, or carbon dating, is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years....
 indicates M. exilis existed on the island for at least 47,000 years prior (which is the approximate limit of the dating method).

Modern elephants are excellent swimmers, and the ancestors of M. exilis most likely swam the to Santarosae. As the population of mammoths increased, the lack of large predators and the loss of habitat caused by the rise of sea levels at the end of the ice age as Santarosae split into four islands favored smaller animals.

M. exilis should not be confused with the mammoth
Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of the Elephantidae and close relatives of modern elephants....
s of Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island

Wrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180th meridian meridian ....
 or Saint Paul Island, which were small races of the woolly mammoth
Woolly mammoth

The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia....
 (M. primigenius) and which died out around 1700 B.C. and 4000 B.C., respectively.

See also

  • Pygmy Elephant
    Pygmy Elephant

    Pygmy Elephants are cryptids, reported to be living in both Africa and Asia. The African Pygmy Elephant, described as Loxodonta pumilio, is currently considered to be a tiny morph of the African Forest Elephants ; see Debruyne et al. ....