One of the most famous animals of the Quaternary is the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), which lived between 200,000 and 3,500 years ago. Several fully-preserved mammoths (inclusive of fur and soft parts) have been found in the permafrost of Siberia and Alaska. These elephant-like animals were about three metres tall and were well adapted to freezing climates: they were covered in long, thick brown fur and had a thick layer of insulating fat beneath the skin. Moreover, their small ears and short tail limited the dissipation of heat. They had large curved tusks measuring up to 3 metres in length, which they could use to sweep away the snow from the low vegetation that constituted their diet. The lithic instruments found alongside the mammoth on display in the museum show that Neanderthal man lived alongside these large mammals and hunted them.
