Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry
Mammoths belong to the order Proboscidea, which also include mastodons and elephants. Species in this order can be immense in size, and the larger species have massive column-like limbs, a long and flexible trunk, and well-developed tusks.
Mammoths lived during the Pleistocene (about 1.8 million to ~10,000 years ago), when the most recent ice ages took place. Mammoths were adapted to live in these colder climates and lived in open prairies and the tundra and taiga regions of the world.
Mammoths were herbivores, which means they only ate plants. What kind of plants mammoths ate depended on the species of mammoth and what habitat they lived in. Some mammoths only ate grasses, but other mammoths could also eat shrubs, leaves, and bark. The biggest predators of mammoths were humans.
Mammoths went extinct about 10,000 years ago.