Editing Mammoth (section)

== Etymology and early observations ==
According to ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary]],'' the word "mammoth" likely originates from *mān-oŋt, a word in the [[Mansi languages]] of western Siberia meaning "earth horn", in reference to mammoth tusks.<ref>“[https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=mammoth mammoth]”, in ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]'', 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]], 2016, <small>→ISBN</small>.</ref> Mammoths appear in the folklore of the indigenous people of Siberia, who were impressed by the great size of their remains. In the mythology of the [[Evenks|Evenk]] people, mammoths were responsible for the creation of the world, digging up the land from the ocean floor with their tusks. The [[Selkup people|Selkup]] believed that mammoths lived underground and guarded the [[underworld]], while the [[Nenets]] and the [[Mansi people|Mansi]] (the latter of whom, along with the [[Khanty]], conceived mammoths as giant birds) believed that mammoths were responsible for the creation of mountains and lakes, while the [[Yakuts]] regarded mammoths as water spirits.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last1=Serikov |first1=Iu.B. |last2=Serikova |first2=A.Iu. |date=April 2005 |title=The Mammoth in the Myths, Ethnography, and Archeology of Northern Eurasia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10611959.2005.11029015 |journal=Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=8–18 |doi=10.1080/10611959.2005.11029015 |issn=1061-1959}}</ref>

The word ''mammoth'' was first used in Europe during the early 17th century, when referring to ''maimanto'' tusks discovered in Siberia,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lister |first1=A. |title=Mammoths – Giants of the Ice Age |last2=Bahn |first2=P. |date=2007 |publisher=Frances Lincoln |isbn=978-0-520-26160-0 |edition=3rd |location=London |page=49 |ref=Lister}}</ref> as recorded in the 1618 edition of the ''Dictionariolum Russico-Anglicum.''<ref>''"[https://www.oed.com/dictionary/mammoth_n Mammoth]" Oxford English Dictionary'' 2000</ref> The earliest scientific research paper on mammoths was by [[Vasily Tatishchev]] in 1725.<ref name=":10" /> [[John Bell (traveller)|John Bell]], who was on the [[Ob River]] in 1722, said that mammoth tusks were well known in the area. They were called "mammon's horn" and were often found in washed-out river banks. Bell bought one and presented it to [[Hans Sloan]] who pronounced it an elephant's tooth.<ref>[[John Bell (traveller)|John Bell]], Travels from St Petersburg in Russia to diverse parts of Asia, Edinburgh, 1806, pages 383-386</ref>

In the [[American colonies]] around 1725, enslaved Africans digging in the vicinity of the [[Stono River]] in [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]] unearthed molar teeth recognised in modern times to belong to [[Columbian mammoth]]s, with the remains subsequently examined by the British naturalist [[Mark Catesby]], who visited the site, and later published an account of his visit in 1843. While the slave owners were puzzled by the objects and suggested that they originated from the [[Genesis flood narrative|great flood]] described in the Bible, Catesby noted that the slaves unanimously agreed that the objects were the teeth of elephants similar to those from their African homeland, to which Catesby concurred, marking the first technical identification of any fossil animal in North America.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elliott |first=Christian |date=22 February 2023 |title=The First Fossil Finders in North America Were Enslaved and Indigenous People |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-first-fossil-finders-in-north-america-were-enslaved-and-indigenous-people-180981615/ |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Simpson |first=George Gaylord |date=1942 |title=The Beginnings of Vertebrate Paleontology in North America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/985085 |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=86 |issue=1 |pages=134 |jstor=985085 |issn=0003-049X}}</ref>

In 1796, [[French people|French]] biologist [[Georges Cuvier]] was the first to identify [[woolly mammoth]] remains not as modern elephants transported to the Arctic, but as an entirely new species. He argued this species had gone [[Extinction|extinct]] and no longer existed, a concept that was not widely accepted at the time.<ref name="Switek">{{cite book |last=Switek |first=B. |url=https://archive.org/details/writteninstoneev0000swit |title=Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature |publisher=Bellevue Literary Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-934137-29-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/writteninstoneev0000swit/page/174 174–180] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="cuvier1796">{{Cite journal |last=Cuvier |first=G. |year=1796 |title=Mémoire sur les épèces d'elephans tant vivantes que fossils, lu à la séance publique de l'Institut National le 15 germinal, an IV |journal=Magasin Encyclopédique, 2e Anée |language=fr |pages=440–445}}</ref> Following Cuvier's identification, German naturalist [[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach]] gave the woolly mammoth its scientific name, ''Elephas primigenius'', in 1799, placing it in the ''[[Elephas]],'' the [[genus]] which today contains the [[Asian elephant]] (''Elephas maximus''). Originally the African elephants, as well as the [[American mastodon]] (described in 1792) were also placed in ''Elephas''. Cuvier coined the [[Synonym (taxonomy)|synonym]] ''Elephas mammonteus'' for the woolly mammoth a few months later, but ''E. primigenius'' became the widely used name for the species, including by Cuvier.<ref name="Lectotypes">{{cite journal |last1=Reich |first1=M. |last2=Gehler |first2=A. |last3=Mohl |first3=D. |last4=van der Plicht |first4=H. |last5=Lister |first5=A. M. |year=2007 |title=The rediscovery of type material of Mammuthus primigenius (Mammalia: Proboscidea) |journal=International Mammoth Conference IV (Poster) |page=295}}</ref> The genus name ''Mammuthus'' was coined by British anatomist [[Joshua Brookes]] in 1828, as part of a survey of his museum collection.<ref>BROOKES, J., 1828. A catalogue of the anatomical and zoological museum of Jeshua Brookes, Esq., F.R.S. etc. Part 1. R.Taylor, London. 76 pp.</ref>

[[Thomas Jefferson]], who famously had a keen interest in [[paleontology]], is partially responsible for transforming the word ''mammoth'' from a noun describing the prehistoric elephant to an adjective describing anything of surprisingly large size. The first recorded use of the word as an adjective was in a description of a large wheel of cheese (the "[[Cheshire Mammoth Cheese]]") given to Jefferson in 1802.<ref name="oed">Simpson, J. (2009). "[http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/word-stories/mammoth/ Word Stories: Mammoth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522163541/http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/word-stories/mammoth/ |date=2013-05-22 }}." ''Oxford English Dictionary Online'', Oxford University Press. Accessed 05-JUN-2009.</ref>