10 Incredible Woolly Mammoth Facts

Written by Jeremiah Wright
Updated: August 16, 2023
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The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is one of the species of extinct mammoths that’s roughly the same size as modern African elephants. Woolly mammoths lived during the Pleistocene and Holocene geological epochs until their extinction, which means they were still around when the first humans emerged on the planet. They were the last of nine species of mammoths.

You’d probably need a winter coat even during summer if you stepped out 20,000 years ago when humans co-existed with the now-extinct group of mammoths. Woolly mammoths lived in the far north at a time when the Earth was experiencing an ice age. That was when ice covered large parts of Europe, Asia, and North America.

10 Woolly Mammoth Facts
There is a group of scientists in Russia that believe bringing the woolly mammoth back to the Siberian tundra can save the planet.

Presently, we still seem to have a deep connection with woolly mammoths, as we do with elephants. We want to see these majestic creatures walking across the permafrost of the north again! Their bodies have been well preserved in the permafrost, where scientists are now becoming interested in resurrecting this species-but let’s not get our hopes up!

This article will look at ten incredible facts about the woolly mammoth to help ignite your imagination.

1. Woolly Mammoth Bones Were Used to Build Homes

wooly mammoth shelter

Neanderthals in central Europe used woolly mammoth bones to build houses.

©LiteHeavy/Shutterstock.com

Early societies, like the Neanderthals in central Europe, used woolly mammoth bones to build houses. A mammoth bone dwelling was typically an oval or circular structure with walls heavily stacked with large mammoth bones. The bones were often modified to be implanted deep into the soil, allowing them to be lashed together.

The earliest mammoth dwellings dated back between 14,000 and 20,000 years ago. The oldest was found 30,000 years ago in the Moldova site, a Neanderthal Mousterian occupation situated on the Dniester River in Ukraine.

2. Woolly Mammoths and Elephants Have Nearly Identical DNA

The Big Five

An African Elephant in the National Park of Kenya, with Mount Kilimanjaro in the background. African elephants are the largest animals that walk the earth at present.

©Volodymyr Burdiak/Shutterstock.com

According to scientific reports, woolly mammoths have more genetic similarities with elephants. It’s believed that woolly mammoths and elephants shared a common ancestor that split into separate species around 6 million years ago.

This similarity to elephants is another incredible wooly mammoth fact. Like elephants, woolly mammoths had tusks, gave birth in the same way, ate the same food, and lived in similar groups. However, they also had several distinctions. The woolly mammoth’s ears were shorter than those of an elephant. Their tusks were also more extensive and much curlier than elephants’ tusks.

3. Woolly Mammoths Still Existed When King Tut Ruled the Egyptians

King Tut

Wooly Mammoths were still around during the rule of King Tut in Egypt.

©JK21/Shutterstock.com

Believe it or not, there were still woolly mammoths living when King Tut ruled the Egyptians; that’s around 3,600 years ago. While other mammoths went extinct about 10,000 years ago, some stuck around for thousands of years, living in isolated island locations—the last woolly mammoth inhabited Wrangel Island off the coast of Russia.

4. Woolly Mammoths Were Not the Only “Woolly Animal” During the Pleistocene Epoch

Wooly Rhinoceros

The woolly rhinoceros coexisted with woolly mammoths during the Pleistocene.

©troyka/Shutterstock.com

The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), another extinct species of rhinoceros, co-existed with the woolly mammoth during the Pleistocene epoch. Like the woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceros were also covered with long, thick hair that enabled them to survive the freezing weather on the steppe. Both animals became extinct at around the same time.

5. Woolly Mammoths Were Smaller Than All the Other Mammoth Species

3d illustration of prehistoric men hunting a young mammoth

The average woolly mammoth was around 9.5 feet at the shoulder and weighed about 6 tons.

©Esteban De Armas/Shutterstock.com

All mammoths were giant. They were 9 to 11 feet tall and weighed approximately 5.4 to 13 tons. Steppe mammoths (Mammuthus trogontherii), which happen to be the biggest mammoths, weighed more than 8 tons and were 13 to 15 feet tall at the shoulder. As compared to all the mammoths, woolly mammoths were around 9.5 feet at the shoulder and weighed about 6 tons, which is approximately the size of modern African elephants.

6. Woolly Mammoths Were Very Important to Early Humans

Primeval Caveman

Ancient people relied on woolly mammoths to provide an abundance of resources for them.

©Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com

Their connection with humans stretches beyond that of predator and prey. The ancient people used woolly mammoths for almost everything imaginable: food, shelter, tools and art. Woolly mammoth fur was used to make blankets and coats to keep the cold out in icy environments. Mammoth-tusk ivory was used to create different things—from sculptures of animals and humans to arrows and tips of spears. A mammoth flute was even discovered in southwestern Germany.

Early humans contributed significantly to the woolly mammoth extinction. Bones from the woolly mammoths were used to make tools, houses, and weapons. A single woolly mammoth could provide a handful of valuable things to a large group of people, which is why a group of early humans followed the herds wherever they went in an attempt to corner and kill one.

7. The First Documented Woolly Mammoth Skeleton Was Discovered in 1799

mammoth

In 1799, a hunter discovered a woolly mammoth skeleton entombed in permafrost on a river bank in Siberia.

©Morphart Creation/Shutterstock.com

In 1799, a hunter discovered a woolly mammoth skeleton entombed in permafrost on a river bank in Siberia. In 1806, the skeleton was taken to the Zoological Institute of the Russian Science Academy, where they put the pieces together.

This was the first time the Russian Zoological Museum, led by Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius, managed to reconstruct the skeleton of an extinct animal, except for one error. Tilesius placed the tusks in the wrong sockets, such that they curved outward instead of inward.

8. Woolly Mammoth Lived in the Frozen and Steppe Tundras

woolly mammoths

Woolly mammoths populated frozen and steppe tundras.

©Aunt Spray/Shutterstock.com

Woolly mammoths were comfortable enough to stay in an extremely cold environment. They were adapted to the cold and thrived during a series of ever-deeper ice ages. However, they didn’t spend their entire time on the frozen tundra. They also populated the steppe tundras, spanning from northwestern Canada and extending up to the west of Europe and as far as south into sunny Spain.

9. A Warming Climate Contributed to the Woolly Mammoth’s Extinction

Heatwave hot sun. Climate Change. Global Warming. Thermometer high temperatures.

Woolly mammoths could not evolve fast enough to survive a warming climate.

©Ed Connor/Shutterstock.com

Apart from being hunted by humans, woolly mammoths may have suffered from a warming climate. Habitats changed when temperatures warmed, causing lakes to become shallower, leaving woolly mammoths nothing to drink. The changes happened so quickly that the mammoths could not adapt and evolve.

10. Scientists Say They Could Bring Back Woolly Mammoths!

The back leg with a hair mummy of a young mammoth Yuka, a female of the species woolly mammoth fossil (Mammuthus primigenius). Found in Yakutia, Russia

Scientists have the technology to sequence a woolly mammoth’s genome with DNA from preserved remains.


Image: Elen Tkacheva, Shutterstock

©Zhuravlev Andrey/Shutterstock.com

Scientists are working towards bringing back woolly mammoths. They would first need to sequence the woolly mammoths’ genome, edit the DNA of a close living relative to match it, make the embryos with the revised genome, and then bring them to term in a living surrogate mother.

In 2021, a team of scientists and entrepreneurs announced that they had already started a new company named Colossal that aims to genetically resurrect the woolly mammoth and place them back on the Siberian tundra.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock.com


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About the Author

I hold seven years of professional experience in the content world, focusing on nature, and wildlife. Asides from writing, I enjoy surfing the internet and listening to music.

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