The Ice Age mammal with long, curved tusks that was adapted to cold climates and largely disappeared about 10,000 years ago was the woolly mammoth.
The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was a close relative of modern elephants. It lived across the mammoth steppe, a cold grassland stretching through northern Eurasia and North America. Its dense fur, insulating fat, small ears, short tail, and cold-adapted blood helped it survive freezing conditions.
Its tusks were modified incisor teeth that could grow extremely long and curve dramatically. Mammoths used them for fighting, clearing snow, exposing vegetation, and possibly moving objects. Their molars were specialized for grinding grasses and other tough plants, and each mammoth replaced its molars several times during life.
Most populations vanished between about 14,000 and 10,000 years ago as climate and habitats changed, while human hunting added pressure in some regions. Extinction was not simultaneous everywhere: isolated populations survived on St. Paul Island until about 5,600 years ago and Wrangel Island until about 4,000 years ago. Mammoths are sometimes confused with mastodons, which were a separate branch of the elephant family.