The Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska in 1854; Omaha served as the territorial capital of Nebraska. The capital was moved to the town of Lancaster when Nebraska became a state. Lancaster was then renamed to honor Abraham Lincoln, the recently assassinated president.
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Mammuthus columbi - Mammoth is the common term for several extinct species closely related to the modern elephant. The Columbian mammoth evolved from the steppe mammoth and roamed an area stretching from the United States to Nicaragua during the late Pleistocene epoch. The Columbian mammoth sustained itself on the grasses of the vast savannahs of the Americas. Fossil evidence has shown the mammoth as one of the last large mammals falling into extinction in the Americas; the mammoth disappeared 12,500 years ago.
