Thousands of years ago many elephantlike animals roamed the Earth in large numbers. These animals later became extinct. The mammoth and the mastodon are two of the most well known of these animals. The mammoth, the mastodon, and the modern elephant are related.

Where and when mammoths and mastodons lived

Mastodons were early relatives of the mammoths. They first dominated the Earth some 25 million years ago, but they survived in some parts of the world until about 10,000 years ago. In North America, mastodons probably survived up to an even more recent period, when Indian groups inhabited the region. The mastodon had a worldwide distribution.

Mammoth remains have been found on every continent except Australia and South America. These deposits belong to the era that began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended roughly 10,000 years ago.

Physical features

Mastodons were shorter than modern elephants but were more heavily built. The skull resembled that of the modern elephant, but was lower and flatter. The ears were smaller and the body was relatively long. The legs were short, massive, and pillarlike. Mastodons were covered with long, reddish brown hair.

In comparison, most of the mammoth species were about as large as modern elephants, about 10–13 feet (3–4 meters) tall. The North American imperial mammoth grew to a shoulder height of about 13 feet (4 meters).

Mammoths had a woolly, yellowish brown undercoat about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) thick. Like the mastodon, the mammoth had small ears and long upper tusks and survived on vegetation.

Study of fossils

Although they became extinct thousands of years ago, the bodies of many mammoths and mastodons were preserved when they got trapped in ice and froze to death. These frozen remains were later discovered by humans and used for study. In fact, most of what is known today about these animals has come from the study of their remains.

In Siberia, some mammoth carcasses were found in great numbers. Some were in such a good condition that the meat was fed to sled dogs. Ivory from these fossils was exported from Siberia to China and Europe. The paintings made by primitive cave dwellers in Europe also provide clues about these wild beasts.

Extinction

The reasons for the extinction of the mastodons and the mammoths are still unclear to scientists. Although early humans hunted the animals, it is unlikely that these humans with their simple tools drove the great beasts to extinction. Experts speculate that as the ice age set in, thick ice sheets covered vast areas of land. The grasslands on which the mammoths lived were destroyed, and this probably contributed to their extinction.