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On a windblown steppe some 11,000 years ago, a herd of mammoths stampeded up a hill as a vast fire set by Paleo-Indians burned toward them across the grasslands. The panicked giants, elephant-like creatures standing 11 to 13 feet (3.3 to 4 meters) high at the shoulder, reached the top of the rise, then fell 50 feet down into a ravine. Out of the drifting smoke appeared a dozen of the Paleo-Indians, carrying spears tipped with sharp Clovis points to finish off the mammoths that had survived the fall. Starting fires to stampede large animals over cliffs was one of the ways humans used to hunt. Mammoths, with large tusks and abundant meat, were highly prized. Mammoths were members of the genus Mammuthus, a group of several species of prehistoric elephants that roamed the North American continent from about two million years ago until becoming extinct here about 11,000 years ago. Many scientists believe human hunting and climate change combined to kill off the mammoths. Before human hunters arrived and the climate changed, mammoths thrived on the plentiful grasses and other vegetation of the tundra and steppe. There were several species of the creatures, including the Columbian mammoth, Jefferson's mammoth, the imperial mammoth, and the woolly mammoth. The Columbian, Jefferson's, and imperial mammoths were similar to modern elephants in that they had two large, curved tusks; a long trunk; and little hair. The adults stood about 9 to 15 feet (2.7 to 4.6 meters) tall and had a life span of about 50 years. The woolly mammoth, which lived in the colder arctic tundra, was covered with thick curls of wool overlaid with long, coarse protective hair. Mammoths differed from mastodons, another elephant-like creature that roamed North America from about 4.5 million to 10,000 years ago. Mastodons were smaller, standing 8 to 10 feet (2.43 meters) tall at the shoulder and weighing four to six tons. The key difference between mastodons and mammoths was their teeth. Mammoths had flat teeth designed to grind grasses, while mastodons had cones on their teeth that enabled them to feed off shrubs and trees. As a result, mastodons lived in the tropical rain forest and spread into South America. Mammoths have ancestral roots going back about 35 million years to a swamp-dwelling creature that resembled a small hippopotamus. During eons of evolution, an assortment of strange-looking creatures came and went - animals with two or fourtusks, curved up or down, some shaped like flat shovels or corkscrews. Mammoths evolved from this group about four million years ago, but elephants are the only modern survivors.
