[3] Sloane turned to another biblical explanation for the presence of elephants in the Arctic, asserting that they had been buried during the Great Flood, and that Siberia had previously been tropical before a drastic climate change.

[23] African elephants (Loxodonta africana) branched away from this clade around 6 million years ago, close to the time of the similar split between chimpanzees and humans.

Regional and intermediate species and subspecies such as M. intermedius, M. chosaricus, M. p. primigenius, M. p. jatzkovi, M. p. sibiricus, M. p. fraasi, M. p. leith-adamsi, M. p. hydruntinus, M. p. astensis, M. p. americanus, M. p. compressus, and M. p. alaskensis have been proposed.

Another feature shown in cave paintings was confirmed by the discovery of a frozen specimen in 1924, an adult nicknamed the "Middle Kolyma mammoth", which was preserved with a complete trunk tip.

[48] Woolly mammoths had numerous sebaceous glands in their skin, which secreted oils into their hair; this would have improved the wool's insulation, repelled water, and given the fur a glossy sheen.

In addition to their fur, they had lipoplexes (fat storage) in their neck and withers for times when food availability was insufficient during winter, and their first three molars grew more quickly than in the calves of modern elephants.

[45][61] As in reindeer and musk oxen, the haemoglobin of the woolly mammoth was adapted to the cold, with three mutations to improve oxygen delivery around the body and prevent freezing.

Differences were noted in genes for a number of aspects of physiology and biology that would be relevant to Arctic survival, including the development of skin and hair, storage and metabolism of adipose tissue, and perceiving temperature.

The two-fingered tip of the trunk was probably adapted for picking up the short grasses of the last ice age (Quaternary glaciation, 2.58 million years ago to present) by wrapping around them.

[88] A 2014 study concluded that forbs (a group of herbaceous plants) were more important in the steppe-tundra than previously acknowledged, and that it was a primary food source for the ice-age megafauna.

[93] Recent stable isotope studies of Siberian and New World mammoths have shown there were differences in climatic conditions on either side of the Bering land bridge (Beringia), with Siberia being more uniformly cold and dry throughout the Late Pleistocene.

William Buckland published his discovery of the Red Lady of Paviland skeleton in 1823, which was found in a cave alongside woolly mammoth bones, but he mistakenly denied that these were contemporaries.

Scientists are divided over whether hunting or climate change, which led to the shrinkage of its habitat, was the main factor that contributed to the extinction of the woolly mammoth, or whether it was due to a combination of the two.

[115] Climatic patterns during the Last Interglacial (130–116 kyr BP) suggest that woolly mammoths and associated steppe faunas were sensitive to contractions of steppe-tundra habitats since they were adapted to cold, dry, and open environments.

Genetic results and climatic models both indicate that habitats suitable for the woolly mammoth in Eurasia contracted during the interglacial period, which would have caused population bottleneck effects that restricted its range to a few northern areas.

[126] The last population known from fossils remained on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until 4,000 years ago, well into the start of human civilization and several centuries subsequent to the construction of the Great Pyramid and Sphinx of ancient Egypt.

[138] The sudden disappearance of an apparently stable population may be more consistent with a catastrophic event, possibly related to climate (such as icing of the snowpack), disease, or a human hunting expedition.

[142][143] Woolly mammoths survived an even greater loss of habitat at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and the onset of the Last Interglacial, approximately 125,000 years ago.

[144][145] Studies of an 11,300–11,000-year-old trackway in south-western Canada showed that M. primigenius was in decline while coexisting with humans, since far fewer tracks of juveniles were identified than would be expected in a normal herd.

[120] Woolly mammoth fossils have been found in many different types of deposits, including former rivers and lakes, and in "Doggerland" in the North Sea, which was dry at times during the ice age.

[150] While frozen woolly mammoth carcasses had been excavated by Europeans as early as 1728, the first fully documented specimen was discovered near the delta of the Lena River in 1799 by Ossip Schumachov, a Siberian hunter.

This adult male specimen was called the "Yukagir mammoth" and is estimated to have lived around 18,560 years ago, been 2.829 m (9 ft 3.4 in) tall at the shoulder, and weighed between 4 and 5 tonnes.

The specimen is estimated to have died 30,000 years ago and was nicknamed "Nun cho ga", meaning "big baby animal" in the local Hän language.

[173] As in Siberia, North American natives had "myths of observation" explaining the remains of woolly mammoths and other elephants; the Bering Strait Inupiat believed the bones came from burrowing creatures, while other peoples associated them with primordial giants or "great beasts".

[150] Inspired by the Siberian natives' concept of the mammoth as an underground creature, it was recorded in the 16th-century Chinese pharmaceutical encyclopedia, Ben Cao Gangmu, as yin shu, "the hidden rodent".

[182] In 2011, the Chinese palaeontologist Lida Xing livestreamed while eating meat from a Siberian mammoth leg (thoroughly cooked and flavoured with salt) and told his audience it tasted bad and like soil.

[184] There have been occasional claims that the woolly mammoth is not extinct and that small, isolated herds might survive in the vast and sparsely inhabited tundra of the Northern Hemisphere.

A French chargé d'affaires working in Vladivostok, M. Gallon, said in 1946 that in 1920, he had met a Russian fur-trapper who claimed to have seen living giant, furry "elephants" deep into the taiga.

[185] Due to the large area of Siberia, the possibility that woolly mammoths survived into more recent times cannot be completely ruled out, but evidence indicates that they became extinct thousands of years ago.

[189][196][197] The ethics of using elephants as surrogate mothers in hybridisation attempts has been questioned, as most embryos would not survive, and knowing the exact needs of a hybrid elephant–mammoth calf would be impossible.