The Proboscidea is the superorder that includes elephants and mammoths, the Elephantidae. There are three families in this order: African Elephants, Asian Elephants, and Mammoths.
Only the elephant family is still around today. So, how big were mammoths compared to elephants?
The woolly mammoth was not as large as people originally thought. In fact, they were only the size of modern African elephants. A male’s shoulder height would range from 9 to 11 feet, weighing approximately 6 tons.
Though many people incorrectly believe otherwise, elephants and mammoths are not closely related–they are distant cousins. Both animals coexisted peacefully with humans for a very long time.
Although male elephants will have the occasional violent outburst over things such as territory and mating rights, they are usually gentle animals.
In this article, we’ll compare and contrast elephants with mammoths – looking at why the former have persisted while the latter have perished.