Mammoth

The Mammoth is a fossil that can be donated to the museum in all games to date. Mammoths were large, hairy creatures that went extinct as little as 8,000 years ago, due to the changing climate, human intervention, and possibly disease. Although the process of fossilization takes millions of years, meaning that all mammoths found are still in their skeletal form, mammoths are classed as fossils in Animal Crossing for the sake of consistency

In Animal Crossing
''"Will wonders never cease? Blathers, your eyes must be failing you... No! It IS true! The mammoth! It's complete! Hoo, I say! Hootie hoo! Phenomenal! Sensational! A truly grand occurrence! Welcome to cloud nine! Blathers, compose yourself... Now then, where to begin? Mammoths... Yes, mammoths... The wooliest of woolies... They are, of course mammals, and ones that lived much, much later than the dinosaurs, wot wot. Pleistocene earth was their home, and they are firmly established in our minds as creatures of the Ice Age. Mammoths ranged in height from 6 feet to 14 feet at the shoulder. The wooly mammoth is their most famous species. The last of the mammoths died out some 10,000 years ago, which coincides with the ascent of man. It is, perhaps, the first animal whose extinction was contributed to by man. Though certainly not the last. Humans can truly be the most thoughtless and callous of creatures when they think only of themselves! Hoo! I say again: HOO! Oh, dear! I wasn't referring to you personally. No offense intended. Temper, temper!"''

In Wild World
"It resembled an elephant and only became extinct a mere 10,000 years ago! This shaggy beast lived in the ice age and developed pronounced tusks, wot wot? Yes, it used them to scrape ice and snow to get to the plants that it fed on! Ah. Hoo. I'm so very sorry. I'm rather a mammoth blabbermouth myself, wot."

In City Folk
"The mammoth only went extinct recently. These elephant relaives died off a mere 10,000 years ago. Not so long ago, eh wot? Their herbivorous diet and arctic range has led to much speculation... Many believe they developed strong tusks to scrape through snow and ice to search for food!"

In New Leaf
"The mammoth was a giant, woolly elephant-like animal equipped with long, deadly tusks. Aside from protection, the tusks were also likely used to clear paths through the snow. One theory states that mammoths became extinct at the end of the last ice age due to a lack of food."

The completed mammoth can be found next to the Sabertooth Tiger in the second fossil room.

In New Horizons
"Ah, Mammoths, the bad boys-and girls!-of the ancient-mammal world. So woolly! So unkempt! They are, of course, most famous for their size, which could be up to 13 tons for the largest males. But they were subject to no one's rules, and some species were SMALLER than modern elephants! Scientists have pondered for years: were mammoths the COOLEST of all extinct species? Perhaps so!"

In Real Life
Mammoths, or members of the genus Mammuthus, were close relatives of modern-day elephants. In fact, the Asian elephant is considered to be more closely related to mammoths than to the African elephants. The first mammoths appeared in southern Africa 5 million years ago, while the last survived until around 1650 BCE on Wrangel Island, a small island off of Siberia near the Bering Strait. While some species, like the Columbian mammoth from mainland North America, could reach 4 meters at the shoulder and weigh 10 tons, most were comparable in size to Asian elephants (3 meters at the shoulder and usually less than 5 tons).