The exhibition of the Museum of the History of the Resort City of Sochi presents a tooth of a fossil animal — Mammuthus trogontherii, also known as a steppe mammoth. According to researchers, this is the upper left molar. The fossil was discovered near the mouth of the Mamaika River in the Central District of Sochi.

The molar belonged to Mammuthus trogontherii, a representative of the Elephantidae family and the ancestor of the woolly mammoth, who lived on earth in the era corresponding to the end of the Early and the Middle Pleistocene, approximately 1.8 million to 200 thousand years ago. This kind of mammoth was on average one and a half times larger than the woolly mammoth, reached a height of over four meters and weighed about ten tons. It mainly grazed in steppes. In Russia, this animal lived in the areas of the modern Krasnodar and Stavropol Regions, as well as in Western and Eastern Siberia. In the Perm Region, the complete skeletons of two steppe mammoths were found. As for the south of Russia, one of the most significant finds of a complete skeleton of Mammuthus trogontherii was made in Anapa, Krasnodar Krai, in 2015.

The steppe mammoth was one of the largest land mammals and the ancestor of woolly mammoths. However, the steppe mammoth and the woolly mammoth are sometimes considered two separate genera. Paleontologists distinguish them by their teeth. The Mammuthus trogontherii was the first of its kind of Proboscidea animals to move north from Africa. In the conditions of the new habitat, the structure of the teeth began to change and became similar to that of the woolly mammoth. Scientists who found the remains, including the teeth, often could not distinguish the two species. Mammuthus trogontherii was named after the extinct genus of beavers — Trogontherium. The bones of the Trogontherium beaver are an important indicator for determining the geological age. Bone remains of the Proboscidea are found in the same deposits as the rodent’s bones. The Mammuthus trogontherii became extinct about 200 thousand years ago due to changes in the climate: it became colder and there was less vegetation. Woolly mammoths, which were more adapted to the conditions of the Ice Age, came instead.