55 million years ago, great hairy beasts roamed the planet. Twelve feet high and weighing in at eight tons, mammoths were similar to today’s Indian elephants but much more impressive. Their skulls were domed like cathedrals and their shoulders peaked high in order to hold a great, insulating layer of fat. They had dark gray skin covered by fine underwool and topped with long, dark hairs like a musk ox. Mammoths had smaller ears and shorter trunks than today’s elephants but were known for their large, elaborately curved tusks.
Made from ivory, the mammoth’s tusks were crucial for scraping snow and ice away from the vegetation that made up this herbivore’s diet. The tusks also provided protection from predators and attraction during mating. The biggest mammoth tusk ever found was 16 feet long and weighed 208 pounds. Preserved for eons in the frozen tundra, mostly of Siberia, mammoth tusks are valued by collectors around the world.