#elephantids

The First Animals. Written by B. Goodreid. Illustrated by L. Field Marchant. 1970.

Mammuthus primigenius, known as the woolly mammoth, is quite possibly the most famous Pleistocene animal and undoubtedly the most famous prehistoric elephantid. As one of the last species of mammoth, it lived into the Holocene, going extinct only around 4,000 years ago, and its life appearance can be studied from frozen carcasses and cave art. In fact, ivory is still poached from these carcasses today.

While closer in relation to Asian elephants, the woolly mammoth was around the same size as modern African Elephants. Adapted for cold environments, it had a double coat of thick fur, small ears to minimize heat loss, a fat-storing hump on its back, and specially adapted haemoglobin that prevented its body from freezing. It ranged from North America to Northern Eurasia, in a cold and dry habitat known as the mammoth steppe. Due to their size, trunks, and tusks, healthy adult woolly mammoths had no predators, but juveniles and weakened adults were preyed on by wolves, cats, hyenas, and humans. They themselves grazed on mainly grasses and sedges.

Woolly mammoths were very important to both Neanderthals and ice age humans. They used their tusks and bones for building huts and making tools, weapons, and art. In turn, the mammoths were depicted in cave art, engraving, and sculptures. Along with horses and bison, woolly mammoths are one of the most depicted animal in ice age art. It is unknown if mammoths were hunted often, or if their remains were simply scavenged. A few specimens show evidence of spear hunting, while a juvenile shows evidence of being killed by a predator and then scavenged by humans. Ivory seems to have been the main resource gained from mammoths, as other prey species like caribou and bison were more often hunted for meat and skins.