Editing Pygmy mammoth (section)

==Evolution==
The oldest fossil of mammoths on the Channel Islands is a tusk found on a [[marine terrace]] on Santa Rosa Island, which has been dated based on surrounding corals as 83,800 ± 600 – 78,600 ± 500 years old.  It is suggested that their [[Columbian mammoth]] ancestors colonised the islands either around 250,000 or 150,000 years ago, when sea levels were considerably lower than they are today.<ref name=":0" /> During these times, the distance to the mainland was reduced to a minimum of {{convert|7|km}},<ref name="sciencedirect.com">{{Cite journal |last1=Kennett |first1=D.J. |last2=Kennett |first2=J.P. |last3=West |first3=G.J. |last4=Erlandson |first4=J.M. |date=2008 |title=Wildfire and abrupt ecosystem disruption on California's Northern Channel Islands at the Ållerød–Younger Dryas boundary (13.0–12.9 ka) |url=https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/ssci_fac/24 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=104 |issue=27–28 |pages=2530–2545 |bibcode=2008QSRv...27.2530K |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.09.006|url-access=subscription }}</ref> though there was never a land bridge as has often historically been suggested. Mammoths, like living elephants, were probably good swimmers and able to swim this distance.<ref name=":0" /> The reduction in body size was the result of [[insular dwarfism]] as a result of the smaller land area of the Channel Islands relative to the mainland, which is observed in other island animal species, such as [[dwarf elephant]]s known from islands in the Mediterranean.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Semprebon |first1=Gina M. |last2=Rivals |first2=Florent |last3=Fahlke |first3=Julia M. |last4=Sanders |first4=William J. |last5=Lister |first5=Adrian M. |last6=Göhlich |first6=Ursula B. |date=June 2016 |title=Dietary reconstruction of pygmy mammoths from Santa Rosa Island of California |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618215014020 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=406 |pages=123–136 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.120|bibcode=2016QuInt.406..123S |url-access=subscription }}</ref>