The
African mammoth,
Mammuthus africanavus (literally, "African ancestor mammoth"), is among the oldest of mammoth
species, having first appeared around 3 million years ago during the late
Pliocene. Its fossils have been found in
Chad,
Libya,
Morocco and
Tunisia. It was relatively small and is seen as the direct ancestor of
M. meriodionalis, although its tusk diverged more widely from its skull than later species of mammoth, which might indicate that it was an evolutionary dead end.