As the two others pointed out, the first thing that distinguishes mammoths from modern-day elephants is the fur. On the Blue Team's Elephant it says "LEVIATHAN" and has a picture of a blue, whale-like sea creature sporting a mean grimace and wearing a comically tiny golden crown. The woolly, Northern, or Siberian mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is by far the best-known of all mammoths. Sure enough, mammoths had a thicker skin and long, shaggy hair that protected them from the harsh winter conditions. The mammoth had a high, peaked head and large ears. Mammoths and modern elephants are closely related members of the same family (Elephantidae). The modern African elephant has a slightly smaller overlap, sharing about 95.5 percent of its mitochondrial DNA with the woolly mammoth. Learn more about … The difference suggests that African elephants were the first modern species to split from the main branch of the elephant family tree. Mastodons on the other hand had a low, long skull with small ears. Another significant distinguishing feature between the mammoth and the mastodon was their teeth. Mammoths had ridged molars that allowed them to cut through vegetation, similar to modern-day elephants. Some other differences: 1. Analyses showed that the modern Asian elephant shares 95.8 percent of its mitochondrial DNA with the woolly mammoth. Team's Elephant there is spray-painted graffiti with text that reads "BEHEMOTH" and a red cartoon picture of a woolly mammoth. Mammoth, any member of an extinct group of elephants found as fossils in Pleistocene and Holocene deposits on several continents. The difference between a mammoth and an elephant is that the mammoth is extinct, the elephant is not.