Mammoths, Mastodons And Other Prehistoric Elephants

LaoPhil, you hit on one of my favorite topics! And when you dig into it, you realize just what a huge topical it is. Here are some relevant poster stamps and other cinderellas of note...

Great Cinderella labels, Nils! like very much the last colorful Mammoth. Thanks for sharing.

Mammoths on cave painting, Guinea Bissau, 2012.

A very attractive set of four stamps features prehistoric animals was designed and engraved by Piotr Naszarkowski and issued by Sweden in 1992. One of them shows Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius).


Issued in a booklet contains two copies of the set. The cover shows time scale, place the Mammoth in the late Quaternary, the most recent geologic period, spanning the last 2.6 million years to the present day.

That Swedish set is one of my favorite prehistoric stamp issues.

Mammoths on postmarks from different countries.

Visit the museums of Horn", Austria, 1985".

"All about Mammoths" exhibition, Finland, 1985.


Norsk Bremuseum, Norway, 1992.


Ice age animals, UK, 2006.

A prehistoric proboscidean, Archidiskodon planifrons (Elephas planifrons) was an elephant-like mammal from the Pliocene–Pleistocene, closely related to stegodonts and early elephants. Its fossil record spans large parts of Asia, with notable discoveries in Nepal, including a tusk-bearing skull found near Rato Khola and other fragments from Babai Khola and the Kathmandu Valley, highlighting its presence in the region's ancient ecosystems.

Archidiskodon planifrons and its fossilized skull, Nepal, 2013.

A small selection of stamps show elephants on prehistoric cave and stone paintings from South West Africa (Namibia), Chad, Mauritania and Libya.

Mastodons were large, prehistoric relatives of elephants that lived in North and Central America until about 10,000 years ago. They belonged to the genus Mammut and are often confused with mammoths, but they were a distinct group. Mastodons had shorter, stockier builds, long curved tusks, and a covering of hair. Unlike mammoths, whose teeth were adapted for grazing grasses, mastodons had cusped molars suited for browsing on leaves, twigs, and shrubs in forested environments. They coexisted with early humans and likely became extinct due to a combination of climate change and overhunting.

Here is a selection of Mastodon stamps from the USA, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Manama and Qu'aiti State of Hadhramaut.

Fossil Mammals of Slovenia - Mastodon

The mastodon Anancus arvernensis was a towering presence in prehistoric Europe, roaming vast forested landscapes from the late Miocene through to the early Pleistocene.
Though it resembled modern elephants in stature, Anancus stood apart with its extraordinarily long, flattened tusks and distinctive tooth structure, adapted to its ancient diet.
A striking example of this species' legacy is featured on a Slovenian postage stamp,
which depicts a mastodon molar discovered over seventy years ago in a gravel pit near Sveti Andraž in Slovenske gorice.
The tooth, notable for its robust root, comes from the lower jaw, offering valuable insight into the anatomy of this extinct giant.

Thanks for sharing, Zomir!

Deinotherium was a very large prehistoric relative of modern elephants that lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia from the Miocene to the Pleistocene (about 20 to 2 million years ago). Unlike mammoths and mastodons, it had downward-curving tusks attached to the lower jaw rather than the upper. These tusks were likely used to strip bark or pull down branches for feeding. Fossils suggest it inhabited warm, forested environments, where it browsed mainly on leaves rather than grazing on grass.

Here are two stamps from Bulgaria and Republic of Congo show Deinotherium


Eprevue de Luxe

Fossilized Deinotherium skull on German postmark publicizing the Deinotherium museum in Eppelsheim, Germany. 2001.

A small selection of Mammoth stamps and sheet from: USA, Bulgaria, El salvador, Manama, Tanzania and Madagascar.

Mammoth fossil skull and a Mammoth reconstruction, Japan, 2005.


Mammoth in Museum of Natural History in Osaka, Japan, postmark 1982.

Gomphotherium was an extinct proboscidean that lived from the Miocene to early Pleistocene (13–1.7 million years ago), characterized by a long trunk and four tusks—two upper curved and two lower shovel-shaped. It had a varied diet of leaves, fruits, and aquatic plants and was widespread across Africa, Eurasia, and North America, making it a key ancestor of later elephant lineages.

Gomphoterium, El Salvador 1979 and Croatia 1997.


Cuvieronius was a later gomphothere from the Pliocene and Pleistocene (5 million–10,000 years ago) of the Americas, with a long trunk and spiral-shaped upper tusks adapted for browsing. Among the last of its kind, it vanished at the end of the Ice Age, likely due to climate change and human hunting.

Cuvieronius, Turks and Caicos Islands 1991 and Guyana 1990.


The Guyana stamp issued in a sheet shows prehistoric animals of South America from the Cenosoic era.


Proboscideans are modern elephants and their extinct relatives like mammoths and mastodons.

Woolly Mammoth and a Neanderthal friend...
Guinea Bissau, 2012

To commemorate the 13th Conference of the International Union for Quaternary Research, held in Peking, The PRC issued in 1991, a stamp depicting a head statue of Peking Man (Sinanthropus pekinensis) exhibited in Zhoukoudian, with mammoths on the background.