Mammuthus primigenius is the zoological name of an elephant species commonly referred to in Japan as the manmosu (mammoth). The mammoth emerged approximately 250,000 years ago and thrived in extensive areas of Eurasia and North America. Having become extinct about 10,000 years ago, it can no longer be found alive anywhere in the world. To be more precise, it is called the woolly mammoth because there are several other species in the genus Mammuthus.
As the name “woolly mammoth” suggests, this species was entirely covered with long hair. Woolly mammoths lived when the earth was extremely cold. Their long hair apparently helped to maintain their body temperature in that freezing environment. As the climate was cold and dry at that time, grasslands stretched across the northern areas of Eurasia and North America, where mammoths are thought to be have grazed.
Hokkaido is the only place in Japan where mammoths once lived. Mammoth fossils excavated here have been dated to approximately 48,000 to 20,000 years ago.
