Was mammoths really bigger than the biggest elephant species today?

Question

j/w b/c on the internet some people say yes, the others no....so which one is it!!???

haysoos2, not that i'm questioning your knowledge of the Columbian Mammoth, but don't some african elephants still get up to 12 feet tall at the shoulder? i've also heard some accounts of 13 feet but i dunno if that's true, but as far as weight goes the columbian mammoth definately has modern elephants beat (african elephants only weigh like 12,000 lbs. Vs. the 20,000 lbs. columbian mammoth) also does anyone know what the average height of an african male elephant is? i'd say 12 feet tall at the shoulder, also does anyone know how tall elephants would b if we measured them from the ground to the top of their heads, instead of just to their shoulder? i'd say they'd b atleast 6-12 inches taller? thanks! note: these questions are optional

WHOA!!! 15-18 feet tall!!!! man that's HUGE!!!

Answer 1

I think one potential source of your confusion is the fact that there was in fact more than one mammoth species.

The most famous mammoth is the so called woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), but there were others such as the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), Jefferson's mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersoni), Channel Island dwarf mammoth (Mammuthus exilis), southern mammoth (Mammuthus meridionalis), steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii), and the Imperial mammoth (Mammuthus imperator). And those are just the North American varieties. There were more in Asia and Europe.

The woolly mammoth was actually slightly smaller than the Asian elephant (which is actually more closely related to the mammoths than the African elephants are).

However other species, like the Columbian mammoth, were much larger. The largest specimen of the Columbian mammoth from the La Brea tar pits was 12 feet tall at the shoulder and weighed about 10 tons - much larger than the largest African elephants today.

Some species were much, much smaller, especially those that inhabited isolated islands. The Channel Islands dwarf mammoth was only four to eight feet tall.

Hopefully this helps to clear up some of the confusion.

UPDATE:

Yes, the male African elephant does average about 12 feet at the shoulder. This is one of the problems with taking just one measuer to determine "size". The proportions of mammoths and African elephants are slightly different, and the way they hold their heads are different, so a simple shoulder measure, or measure to the top of the head doesn't tell the whole story. There are also differences in the length of the legs that make a considerable difference when comparing height and weight. Mammoths tend to have relatively stubby legs, while the African elephants are longer limbed, almost rangy in comparison.

For a really big elephant, there is also the extinct Miocene proboscideans the Deinotheres, which may have been 15 to 18 feet at the shoulder.

Answer 2

Were Mammoths Bigger Than Elephants

Answer 3

Yes they were, and the largest hoard of mammoth skeletons ever found was in the north sea

Answer 4

yes they were about 1 and a half the size of the largest elephant (African)

Answer 5

nuclear holocaust everything dead or been posioned by raidiation so there are few things left (for example the water bear "search it on google" cochroches, and some forms of deep sea life) so they would have to evolve to keep from dieing o and plants would evolve to

Answer 6

yeah mammoths were bigger than elephants.

Answer 7

yes

Answer 8

No, but their tusks were more fearsum.