Mammoth – A kind of Elephant

When we use the word “mammoth”, we mean something that is huge. But actually there was an elephant that lived long ago that is called the ‘mammoth’. It is now extinct, but lived in many different parts of the world during the Stone Age.

Mammoth had a kind of pointed skull and very unusual tusks curved in a spiral with the tips pointing to each other.

Mammoth had long yellowish-brown hair covering its body. The body was shaped into a great lump at the back of the neck, and the ears were small. With so much hair all over, mammoth was the only kind of elephant ever to exist feeling comfortable even in cold Arctic climate. It lived comfortably in Siberia.

In other parts of the world, such as France, and England, it survived only as long as the Ce Age lasted. When things warmed up in England between ice ages, the mammoth moved up north.

There were also mammoths in North America during that period. Some of them reached a height of 14feet. Because of their great weight, very often mammoths sank into ice- cold mud which later frozen. That is why frozen mammoths are found some- times well- preserved in places like Siberia.