The Mammoth

Let me tell you right off that I've stolen (or rather borrowed) most of the material for this page.
Some links at the bottom of the page will help you find the sources, should you be interested.

What were they?

Mammoths were an extinct genus of elephants incorporating about 20 species that lived during what we know as the Ice Age, the Quatenary period. They first appeared about 4 million years ago and became extinct 4000 years ago. They had a nearly global distribution, with the exception of Australasia and Antarctica. Their morphologies varied considerably and the limbs, tusks and cheek teeth were subject to major evolutionary modifications.

A reconstructed woolly mammoth from the Russian Museum of Paleantology.

Some forms of mammoth, such as the European and North American steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii), which lived between 500 000 and 100 000 years ago, became very large. This species had a shoulder height of about 4.5 meters and tusks that were some 5 meters in length. However, the best known species of mammoth was the woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, which is particular characteristic of the latest cold climatic phase. This species evolved some 120 000 years ago and did not become extinct until about 4000 years ago. It was not particularly large for an elephant, only being some 3 meters high at the shoulder.

The same mammoth, from another angle. Note his small ears. :)

Adaptation to Cold

The woolly mammoth was well adapted to the cold and harsh climate of the mammoth steppe. Size in itself is an advantage in a cold climate since it provides a low surface to volume ratio, which reduces passive heat loss through the skin. The ears are important tools for thermoregulation in living elephants, among whom they are extremely large so as to increase body surface area. These animals live in a tropical climate where excess heat is a problem, and use the ears as thermoregulation devices. Woolly mammoths which lived in a cold climate, on the other hand, had very small ears in order to conserve heat by further reducing surface area relative to body volume. The same is true for the trunk, which is short in the woolly mammoth while it is long in living elephants.

Other adaptations to the cold climate seen in woolly mammoths include the dense fur, consisting of some 50 cm long hairs with a 10 cm coat of dense underwool nearest the skin, which is similar to the conditions in the woolly rhinoceros. Moreover, the body had a 10 cm thick layer of white subcutaneous fat to insulate it. In addition, it is likely that the newborn calf was equipped with heat producing brown fat tissue as an extra adaptation to the harsh conditions.

Links to other Mammoth sites

Most of this info has been borrowed from http://www.nrm.se/virtexhi/mammsaga/welcome.html.en
Some pictures were taken from http://www.museum.state.il.us/zooinst/
More info can be found at http://www.mammothsite.com/

Last updated: February 7th, 1999.