Giant woolly mammoths are thought to have roamed the earth about 2 million years ago during the ice age.
An adult mammoth weighed up to 4.5 tonnes. They were similar to modern-day elephants but had smaller ears and shorter tails to prevent heat loss. Also known as the tundra mammoth, they had two layers of long, shaggy, dark brown hair up to 1 metre long, with their coat made up of thick fur and long guard hairs.
Males grew to about three metres tall while the females stood at about 2.75 metres. The curved tusks of the males were longer, heavy and more spiral in shape than those of the females, and could grow up to 5 metres long. The giant protrusions are thought to have been used to scrape snow off vegetation.
The woolly mammoth had a hump of fat behind its dome-shaped head which made it appear to have a sloping back. The huge beasts were herbivores, feeding on grass, moss, ferns and shrubs and their trunks had two 'fingers' that were used pluck grass. An adult would eat up to 180kg of vegetation a day.
Bones and frozen carcasses of woolly mammoths have been found from Ireland to the east coast of North America to Siberia. The best-preserved remains, some with much soft tissue remaining, have been found in northern Siberia. A recent study by Durham University in Britain found that the woolly mammoth may have become extinct because warmer weather reduced the area of grasslands they could feed off.
During the ice ages, cold and dry conditions meant more pasture and fewer trees, but when temperatures started to rise and conditions became wetter, trees replaced the grass, reducing the main food source for woolly mammoths. Other extinction theories say hunting contributed to their demise.