Woolly mammoth

Woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius Illustration of a pair of woolly mammoths by Zdeněk Burian. Category Lazarus taxon Proposed scientific names Other names Alces, a'tix, bigteeth, fenshu, holkhut, kelig' abuk, kiligivak, kilu-kpuk, kilu kruk, kosar, koshar, kveli-kozar, ma-khar, mamantu, mammon, move-khor, muvkhar, nu'uti, obda, ok'ena zan jhek, qishu, shumu, suli-kozar, we-khor, u-ogus, ves, wes, xólhut, yang-khor, yink-voy, yinshu Country reported U.S. Alaska, Canada, China, Russia First reported 579 Prominent investigators • Bernard Heuvelmans • Yaroslav Golovanov • Lyudmila Osokina • Anatoly Kartashov • Maya Bykova

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius; Russian: мамонт) was a species of mammoth, a genus of elephants, which is known from fossils and preserved soft tissue dating from the Middle Pleistocene until the Early Holocene, but which has been reported in modern times as a cryptid. The woolly mammoth had a circumpolar distribution at the end of the Pleistocene, ranging from Great Britain and Europe, across the Eurasian mammoth steppe, and into northern North America. Mammoth sightings are generally concentrated in the taiga of Russia and, historically, the boreal forests of Alaska and Canada.

Many mammoth legends in Eurasia and parts of North America describe them as burrowing animals: these are observational myths based on discoveries of their half-thawed preserved carcasses. These preserved remains have made the woolly mammoth one of the best-known, and best-studied, of all prehistoric mammals. Some accounts of supposedly-living mammoths describe them as being seen in or near water, and there have been several sightings of bulky aquatic mammals in the lakes, rivers, and boreal wetlands of the Russian taiga. These animals are usually identified by witnesses as mammoths, but are generally not described in detail. A number of Russian cryptozoologists have suggested that some mammoth sightings actually involve woolly rhinoceroses (Coelodonta antiquitatis).