Closely related to modern day elephants, the last woolly mammoths went extinct around 4,000 years ago after being wiped out by multiple killers, including climate change and hunting. Still, some people want to see a mammoth resurrection through cloning — even the CIA wants to bring woolly mammoths back.
Live Science has an expert team of writers and editors to keep you updated on the biggest mammoth findings with the latest news, features and articles about mammutidae.
Discover more about mammoths
—Woolly mammoths: Facts about these extinct, shaggy beasts that once roamed the Arctic
—Woolly mammoths weren't always shaggy. Here's when they evolved some of their trademark features.
Latest about Mammoths
'Unusual' wooly mammoth tooth oldest ever found in North America
Scientists have unveiled the oldest woolly mammoth specimen ever discovered in North America as part of a major DNA study spanning a million years of mammoth evolution.
130,000-year-old baby mammoth goes under the knife
Researchers have performed a necropsy on a 130,000-year-old baby mammoth preserved in the Siberian permafrost.
25,000-year-old mammoth bones reveal culture of ancient humans
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of at least five woolly mammoths at a site in Austria. The remains suggest that ancient humans processed the mammoths' ivory tusks 25,000 years ago.
Rare mammoth tusk found on West Texas ranch
Researchers have excavated a rare mammoth tusk discovered by a hunter on a West Texas ranch.
Mammoth quiz: Test your knowledge of the ice age beasts
Quiz Most of us are familiar with the mammoths in "Ice Age," but how much do you really know about these creatures? Find out by taking our quiz.
Pollen allergies drove woolly mammoths to extinction, study claims
A boom in vegetation at the end of the last ice age may have created so much pollen, it blocked mammoths' sense of smell. A new study suggests this drove the beasts to extinction, but not everyone agrees.
Ancient chromosomes from woolly mammoth discovered in 52,000-year-old freeze-dried skin
In a breakthrough that could boost de-extinction efforts, scientists have determined the 3D structure of a woolly mammoth's genome from a 52,000-year-old piece of freeze-dried skin.
Mystery 'random event' killed off Earth's last woolly mammoths in Siberia, study claims
Woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island for 6,000 years after their mainland cousins had perished. A new genomic study has revealed that this final population likely died from a sudden, mysterious event.
Woolly mammoth de-extinction inches closer after elephant stem cell breakthrough
Scientists at the company Colossal Biosciences have derived induced pluripotent stem cells from elephants, which they say could boost efforts to resurrect woolly mammoths.
'That's a huge amount of movement for a single mammoth': Woolly female's steps retraced based on chemistry of 14,000-year-old tusk
New analysis of a 14,000-year-old woolly mammoth tusk has pieced together the life of a female mammoth that likely died at the hands of hunters close to Alaska's oldest archaeological site.
