Is an elephant really "better" than a mammoth?

First I will talk about elephants, where they come from and their history. Elephants are the largest living species of land mammals. There are three species of elephants; the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. All elephants are the decedents of mammoths however evolution has had a very visible effect on them. The elephants no longer need their hair anymore since they aren’t living in an ice age anymore.

Elephants are pregnant for about 22 months the longest period of all land animals. A normal baby elephant weighs about 260lbs. and can live on an average to be about 70. The oldest elephant ever recorded was 82 years old. One main point about elephants is that they are very large some even weighing over 20,000 pounds. Also the elephants have long tusks and a trunk with which they use to eat. Elephants have been hunted for their ivory tusks for ages and have become endangered in some parts of the world.

Now onto mammoths! Mammoths often had long curved tusks just like todays elephants do. However, mammoths had a covering of fur because they lived a long time ago during the ice ages. The most recently alive mammoth was from around 4,500 years ago. But the earliest ones date back to almost 5 million years ago. Most mammoths were easily about a meter taller than the largest elephant ever recorded. The average mammoth size is 16 feet tall. Their tusks can grow to be up to 11 feet long.

I have decided that although the mammoth is much cooler and larger than the elephant that the elephant is “better” because it is still around and living today.

History does progress and the mammoth evolving into an elephant is a great example of progression.  The mammoth slowly lost hair and progressivly became a virtually hairless animal