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The wooly mammoth was a large, prehistoric Arctic creature related to today's Asian (or Indian) elephant.

Mammoth

With thick, heavy fur (much like today's musk oxen) to keep it warm as it roamed frigid lands during the Ice Age, the wooly mammoth also had long tusks used for protection, to dig in the snow for food, and to attract a mate. The longest tusk ever found measures almost 16 feet (4.8 m) and weighs 208 pounds (about 94 km). Strictly vegetarian, adult wooly mammoths ate up to 400 pounds of plants every day!
Wooly mammoths lived to be about 60 to 80 years old.
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A whole frozen mammoth was found by 9-year old 'Jarkov' south of Chukotka!

Also called the "tundra mammoth," wooly mammoths roamed cold, dry grasslands, open tundra, and steppes (treeless plains) millions of years after dinosaurs were extinct. This was during the Pleistocene epoch (or Ice Age), 1,808,000 to 11,550 years ago. Evidence tells us they were about ten feet (3 m) tall, measured up to 11 feet (3.5 m) long, and weighed around 10,000 pounds (about 4,536 kg). Wooly mammoths lived to be about 60 to 80 years old. Just like modern-day elephants, they died when their last set of teeth wore away and they could no longer eat.

So far, remains of the wooly mammoth have been found in Northern Europe and North America, with the best preserved carcasses found in Siberia.

Wooly mammoths are thought to have become extinct approximately during the end of the Ice Age (12,000 years ago) - with one exception. A separate wooly mammoth population is believed to have lived on Wrangel Island - located in the Arctic Ocean between the Chukchi and East Siberian seas - until 1,700 B.C. These wooly mammoths were smaller - only about 6 feet (2 m) tall - perhaps from adapting to life on the island.

The suspected reasons for the wooly mammoth's extinction include man and nature. As Paleolithic man began to increase in numbers, there was more competition with mammoths for food. Man also hunted wooly mammoths, further depleting their population. Lastly, scientists think wooly mammoths may have sometimes become stuck and died in mud created by thawed permafrost.

Wooly mammoth remains are routinely discovered in northern Siberia during permafrost thaws - but finding a whole mammoth is an exciting scientific discovery!

In 1977, the well-preserved carcass of a seven- to eight-month-old baby wooly mammoth named "Dima" was discovered near the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia. This baby woolly mammoth weighed approximately 221 pounds (100 kg) at death and was almost 41 inches (104 cm high) and 45 inches (115 cm) long. Radiocarbon dating determined that Dima died about 40,000 years ago. While its internal organs are similar to those of living elephants, its ears are only one-tenth the size of those of an African elephant of similar age.

A whole, adult wooly mammoth was discovered during another permafrost thaw in 1997 by a nine-year-old boy with the last name of "Jarkov." Found south of Chukotka on the Siberian Taimyr Peninsula, this "Jarkov Mammoth" is believed to have lived about 20,000 years ago - around 18,380 B.C. It died when it was about 47 years old. Encased in a 23-ton block of ice and soil, the mammoth remains were later flown by helicopter to an ice cave inside the Arctic Circle. Scientists began slowly melting away the ice using hair dryers, sending samples of the mammoth's hair, bone marrow, and stomach contents off to laboratories for testing.

Today, some scientists talk about the possibility of cloning the wooly mammoth or combining its genetic material with that of a modern Indian elephant someday. But at this time, there has not been enough genetic material found in frozen mammoths for this to be tried.

Time Out for Fun

  • Can't get enough of the wooly mammoth? Check out these fun links:
  • Help Scrat collect enough acorns to survive the ice age (and take you to lots of fun games, downloads, and more!). Visit the Ice Age movie website. Learn more >>
  • Check your Ice Age I.Q. or navigate the wooly mammoth maze. Learn more >>
  • Laugh it up with some fun wooly mammoth jokes! Learn more >>

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