Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799

Fourvel, Jean-Baptiste, Fosse, Philippe, Fernandez, Philippe & Antoine, Pierre-Olivier, 2015, Large mammals of Fouvent-Saint-Andoche (Haute-Saône, France): a glimpse into a Late Pleistocene hyena den, Geodiversitas 37 (2), pp. 237-266 : 250

Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach, 1799

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — NISP =222; MNI =8.

1842 sample: 1 thoracic vertebra (apophysis); 1 humerus (portion of proximal end); 1 innominate (juvenile); 1 patella; 1 long bone fragment.

1989-1992 sample: 38 tusk fragments; 109 teeth and tooth fragments; 1 atlas; 2 vertebral apophyses; 2 ribs; 1 radius (shaft fragment); 1 ulna (fragment); 1 innominate (fragment); 4 femurs (shaft fragments); 1 right tibia (shaft cylinder); 3 tibiae (shaft cylinder); 1 right calcaneus fragment; 49 long bone fragments; 1 flat bone fragment (scapula or innominate); 3 compact bone portions (carpals or tarsals).

DESCRIPTION

We could not get access to the complete mammoth collection from Fouvent. However, the palaeontological analysis of the proboscideans was already realized by the late P. Paupe during the 1989-1992 excavations.The present study is largely inspired from his unpublished report. Our own analysis was focused on highly fragmented deciduous teeth (ridges of enamel) and long bone fragments which were not identified anatomically in spite of their large proportions. We have observed directly 222 remains attributed to M. primigenius but were not able to describe thirty-three isolated teeth and two tusk fragments. Based on P. Paupe’s observations and our own analysis, eight up to ten individuals are represented in Fouvent. Juveniles are dominant: four individuals died between two and seven years old. Four teeth are referred to prime adults (between 10-20 and 30 years old). Two molars point to the presence of two old individuals, aged of 45 and 50 years, respectively. In our analysis, dental remains are mostly represented by fragments of lamella mostly belonging to very young animals (n=81). This did not allow us to deduce neither their rank, nor their laterality and even less the MNI. Although the preliminary study of P. Paupe is based on a small dental sample (n=11), our observations confirm his taxonomic assignment with certainty. Thus, both the morphological description of teeth as well as the morphometrical indices (e.g., lamellar frequency between 10 to 16, length/height ratio) demonstrate a high evolved degree of the mammoths that are associated without no doubt to M. primigenius (Paupe in Detrey 1992).

Order PERISSODACTYLA Owen, 1848 Suborder HIPPOMORPHA Wood, 1937 Family EQUIDAE Gray, 1821 Subfamily EQUINAE Gray, 1821 Genus Equus Linnaeus, 1758