Begin the lesson by getting students to make a list of as many mammals as they can think of that live in your area. Have students research mammals that lived during the most recent ice age. 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 woolly mammoth, which lived in the colder arctic tundra, was covered with thick curls of wool overlaid with long, coarse protective hair. 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.