Prehistoric mammal in the elephant family
Woolly mammoth
This shaggy animal is a woolly mammoth, a prehistoric relative of elephants that lived on the open lands of the cold north.
Look at its thick, shaggy coat, small ears and long tusks that curve forwards.
Explore it in the 3D museum →
Meet this animal
- When it lived
- Pleistocene to early Holocene (about 800,000–4,000 years ago)
- Fossil discovery regions
- northern Eurasia, northern North America
- Size
- 3–3.5 metres
- Diet
- Plant-eater
- Classification
- Prehistoric mammal in the elephant family
The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) belonged to the elephant family. It was a close relative of modern elephants, not their ancestor. Woolly mammoths were adapted to cold conditions, but they often lived on open land rich in plants rather than in deep snow. Adults stood about 3–3.5 metres high at the shoulder. Although the source model is titled “Baby”, its tusks and body proportions do not reliably show its age.
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