The educational kit which you have just purchased contains a fossilized bone fragment from an extinct Woolly Mammoth. It also contains this booklet which is designed to help the beginner or avid collector understand the Woolly Mammoth and its environment. The booklet will briefly explain the history of the latest Ice Age, the characteristics of a Woolly Mammoth, and a synopsis of how the bone fragment was preserved. This kit is designed as an educational tool to give insight into this extinct creature. An Ice Age is characterized by the progressive geographical advancement of glacial ice sheets.
Glaciers form when there is a net accumulation of snow and ice from one year to the next.
The snow becomes deeper and deeper as years of snowfalls accumulate. When the snow reaches a certain depth, about 15 to 20 feet, it begins to turn into ice. Glacial ice forms when the snow is compressed from the extreme weight of the overlying snow. In order for glacial ice to form, the temperature needs to remain cold all year, cold enough to keep all the snow from melting during the summer months. Temperatures during the Ice Age were only ten degrees cooler in the summer and about twenty degrees cooler during the winter than present day temperatures.