The woolly mammoth appears
Steppe mammoths in Siberia evolve into the smaller, shaggier animal built for the cold.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 271 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 50 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
By around 400,000 years ago, populations of the steppe mammoth in Siberia have become woolly mammoths: smaller than their ancestors, with a dense double coat, small ears and tail to limit heat loss, a fat hump, and molars carrying more enamel plates for grinding tough steppe grass. They spread across the mammoth steppe from Iberia to Alaska and become the defining animal of the ice age — and later the most frequently painted.