Largest Mammoth that Ever Lived: The Steppe Mammoth

Steppes are the cold grasslands in Asia and Europe. 1.8 million years ago there was a large mammoth called the Southern Mammoth that thrived in there. A group of the Southern mammoths were geographically isolated due to a mountain range or a river. This group turned larger than the ancestral species and were the Steppe mammoths. The steppe mammoths were the largest mammoth species that ever lived. Steppe mammoths were 17 feet tall and 14.3 metric tons in weight.

Mostly we find the teeth of Steppe Mammoths, full skeletons are rare.

Steppe mammoths gave rise to wooly Mammoths and Columbian mammoths. Steppe mammoths became extinct 200, 000 years ago. Their extinction is not fully clear. Probably the competition from more successful woolly mammoths and Columbian mammoth drove them to extinction.