Description
The majestic Woolly Mammoths lived during the Pleistocene epoch
from 1.6 million to 10 000 years ago. They were one of the largest
mammals ever to walk the earth, standing as tall as 14 feet to the
shoulder, and weighing 8-10 tons. Their great ivory tusks curved up
to lengths of 16 feet. Evidence suggests that Mammoths used their
tusks for fighting and to shovel snow away from buried vegetation,
of which they ate approximately 700 pounds a day. Woolly Mammoth
remains are usually not fossilized because they are found frozen in
melting permafrost and glaciers. Woolly mammoths are therefore
among the best-understood prehistoric vertebrates with regard to
anatomy. Today most tusk material is found in Alaska and Siberia.
