The Habitat of Mammoths

Related to the modern elephant, mammoths were giant tusked creatures that once roamed large areas of the earth and survived in closely related forms in a variety of different locations over several million years. Although they originally evolved in warm tropical forests, several types of mammoths evolved into hardy cold-weather survivors and have become an iconic symbol for the ice age.

  1. Ancestral Mammoths

    • The oldest mammoths split from elephants and mastodons 3 to 5 million years ago in the sweltering tropical forests of Africa. Ancestral mammoths were adapted to this lush habitat, where the abundance of fresh vegetables, fruits and plants allowed them to evolve into their gigantic form. These early mammoths then moved north into the Eurasian continent and slowly adapted to the colder climates and grassland habitats that covered much of these lands.

    The Ice Age

    • By the time of the ice age, roughly 1.8 million years ago, the ancestral mammoths of Africa had died off due to the cooling climate and mammoths had spread across the steppes of Eastern Europe and central Asia. Known as the Steppe mammoths, they were adapted to the windy, flat and often cold terrain that stretched on for miles and was covered by a variety of wild grasses, which became thier primary diet.

    The Land Bridge

    • The steppes became harsh tundra during the ice age, and the mammoths adapted by growing warm shaggy coats in several layers and developing thick insulating layers of fat beneath the skin. These mammoths are known as the Woolly mammoths and they are the ones that eventually crossed the Arctic land bridge between Asia and Alaska and brought the mammoths to North America. The freezing of much of the ocean's waters during the ice age allowed for the lowering of global water levels and the exposure of the land bridge.

    American Mammoths

    • Once in North America, mammoths spread to the south, west and east, reaching as far as current day Los Angeles, where preserved remains have been found in tar pits. This new American species is called the Colombian mammoth and it evolved along with the disappearance of the ice age, finding its habitat among the lush grasslands of North America. As the northern glaciers receded, the Colombian mammoth spread further until disappearing about 11,000 years ago due to weather conditions, human hunting or a combination of the two.