Mammuthus primigenius
During the Pleistocene (the last Ice Age), many
terrestrial mammals in North America, Europe, and northern Asia were covered in
coarse hair. The woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, is
an extinct species of elephant whose remains are relatively common in
Siberia. Fossil woolly mammoths are not infrequently found with preserved
soft parts (skin, muscles, guts, etc.) and hair.
Shown below is some fossil hair from a Siberian woolly
mammoth. Most of the hair is slightly reddish-brown in color, but this is
likely not the original color (Lister & Bahn, 1994). These are
samples of the outer coat of a mammoth. The hairs from a mammoth’s inner
coat were finer and shorter.
Locality:
Yakutia (likely from the Taimir Peninsula), northern Siberia, Russia.
Classification: Animalia, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Proboscidea,
Elephantidae
Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799 (centimeter scale) - fossil mammoth hair
from the Late Pleistocene of Siberia.
Reference
Cited
Lister,
A. & P. Bahn. 1994. Mammoths. New York.
Macmillan. 168 pp.