The ecology of the late middle Pleistocene mammoths in Britain

In Britain, most large vertebrate assemblages ascribed to MIS 7 include remains of proboscideans—straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus, woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius and also a smaller mammoth, unique to this interglacial and often referred to in Britain as the ‘Ilford’ mammoth. Recent studies of the Eurasian mammoths suggest that the Ilford mammoth, hitherto described as a primitive form of M. primigenius, is in fact a late form of the steppe mammoth M. trogontherii. This taxonomic change has significant implications for the interpretation of the MIS 7 fossil assemblages particularly as the small mammoth is the most common species at many sites. The end of the MIS 7 interglacial and the onset of colder conditions associated with MIS 6 mark a crucial period in the development of the mammoths in Western Europe with the likelihood that incoming populations of M. primigenius existed contemporaneously with M. trogontherii. Although M. primigenius is commonly listed among the British vertebrate fauna for MIS 7, in the light of recently available chronological data for the Late Middle Pleistocene mammoths, this author suggests that these identifications are erroneous and that woolly mammoths reached Britain too late to have been contemporaneous with the other large vertebrates common to MIS 7. It is concluded that the only mammoth in Britain during this interglacial was the steppe mammoth and that the reduction in its size was due to a combination of climate change and competition from a range of other large herbivores.