Woolly Mammoths
By: Nate

A long time ago in the ice age almost all the animals that survived were mammals. One of the biggest was the woolly mammoth. The woolly mammoth resembled elephants of today, however they were bigger. There were other types of elephant-like creatures in the ice age as well. Examples include the imperial mammoths and them mastodons. They too were closely related to the elephant.

The ice age was a long time ago after the dinosaurs. It got very cold which may be why the dinosaurs became extinct. Some people call the ice age the age of mammals because mammals were the most common animals. A lot of  mammals adapted to the cold. Some of them were the saber tooth tigers, horses, woolly rhinos, and woolly mammoths.

Originally, scientists only found woolly mammoth bones and fur. But then they found a whole Mammoth body in Siberia perfectly preserved in the ice. They even found what it ate last in its stomach. This helped them to figure out what the woolly mammoth was like when it was alive.

Woolly mammoth tusks, one of its most memorable features, are actually teeth! The teeth were too big to stay in the mouth so they popped out. Usually the tusks curved inward and grew to about 16 feet long! Mammoths used their tusks to move snow so they could get to their food.

Another memorable thing about the woolly mammoth is their fur. The woolly mammoth adapted to the cold by growing thick hair. The woolly mammoth's fur usually was black or reddish brown. Unlike the mastodon, its tail didn't have much hair. 

Mammoths lived in Europe, China, Siberia, and Alaska. They ate willow, fir, alder  leaves, and grass. When scientists discovered the preserved mammoth they found 30 lbs. of flowers, pine, moss, and pine cones in its stomach.

Citations

 Books

Aliki. Wild and Woolly Mammoths. New York Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1977. 

Images of icy globe, dinosaur skeleton, and grass from "Microsoft Office Design Gallery Live" <http://dgl.microsoft.com/?CAG=1> Images free for non-profit and personal use. (December-March, 2003). 

Image of mammoth from "ArtToday.com" <http://members.clipart.com/en/index> (2003).

Enchanted Learning. "All about Mammoths." at  <www.allaboutmammals.com/subjects/mammals/mammoths/> (1998-2003).