| Mammoths were large elephant-like animals that lived | | | | longer shaggy outer coat of hair which may have |
| in the northern hemisphere (including North America, | | | | grown as long as 3 feet (1 meter). Another |
| Asia and Europe) from a perhaps 5 million years ago | | | | noteworthy feature is that unlike modern elephants |
| until just a few thousand year ago. There were many | | | | which generally live in warm environments and use |
| different species of mammoths, only some of which | | | | their ears to help cool themselves, Woolly Mammoths |
| were covered with thick coats of insulating hair - | | | | had comparatively small ears. |
| although of course as far as most people are | | | | Unfortunately for Mammoths, as the last ice age came |
| concerned, the most familiar type of mammoth (indeed | | | | to an end and the climate change, their range gradually |
| the only type of mammoth that they are aware of), is | | | | shrank, and they became restricted to smaller and |
| the Tundra Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, which | | | | smaller areas. Eventually, as a result of this habitat loss, |
| is popularly known as the "Woolly Mammoths". | | | | and perhaps also because of hunting by humans, |
| Woolly Mammoths were grazing herbivores | | | | Woolly Mammoths became extinct. The final extinction |
| (plant-eatings) that were well-suited to living in cold | | | | of these impressive animals actually happened |
| environments. They had an 3 inch (8 centimeter) layer | | | | surprising recently - Woolly Mammoths are believed to |
| of insulating fat (similar to blubber in whales) beneath | | | | survived in Wrangel Island, Russia (an island in the |
| their skin, they had a thick undercoat of hair, and a | | | | Arctic Ocean) until 1700 BCE. |