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Wooly Mammoth

© Zany

Recently, an extinct creature was in the news - the wooly or woolly mammoth. Why, you many ask? It is hoped that scientists can recover enough DNA to clone it.

Do you know what a wooly mammoth is? To see a picture of one, visit the Dinosaur Art Gallery. This is an oil painting by Josef Moravec. Now, let's get some facts.

The mammoth is an extinct genus of the elephant. There were approximately 20 distinct mammoth species and they roamed the earth from roughly four million until approximately 4000 years ago, when they died out. The wooly mammoth lived more or less from 120,000 until 4000 years ago. To help the animal withstand the cold, the mammoth had thick fur with a dense underwool coat near its skin, as well as a good layer of fat (10 cm) for insulation. To learn more about the mammoth check out All About Mammoths.

To see how the mammoth possibly evolved from a small pig-like creature (moeritherium), visit Discovery.com's Woolly Mammoth. This site includes a timeline showing where the mammoth fits in, geologically speaking.

To learn more about the mammoth, how about a trip to Hot Springs South Dakota? Virtual field trips are always fun. About 26,000 years ago a sinkhole formed in this area, which subsequently filled with water to create a steep-sided pond. Two species of local mammoth (the Columbian and Wooly), upon entering the pond, became trapped and died. Their remains are the subject of present-day scientific investigations. Here we learn that the wooly mammoth lived in northern Europe, Siberia and North America. It was on the small side, measuring approximately 11 feet at the shoulder and weighing about six to eight tons.

This site provides us with information about mammoths in general. It features a map showing sites in North America where mammoth remains have been found. It also has an interesting discussion about mammoth teeth. A mammoth, which ate 700 pounds of vegetation a day, grew six sets of teeth over a lifetime. As you can well appreciate, that much chewing would wear one's teeth away.

Another excellent site is What killed the mammoths?. It has not yet been determined what, exactly, caused the extinction of the mammoth. This site looks into the possibility that an infectious disease was the culprit. Find out what a hyperdisease is and how researchers are going about proving their hypothesis.

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