Drag to rotate the Woolly Mammoth, scroll or pinch to zoom, and click a body part - the head, a leg, or the trunk - to read what fossils and frozen mummies tell us about it. The panel beside the model carries the real figures.
The Woolly Mammoth was an Ice Age mammal, not a dinosaur - turn on the human figure to see how it towered over a person, with curved tusks reaching out past its trunk.
The body shape here follows the fossil skeleton and frozen mummies found in Siberian permafrost, which is why mammoths are unusually well documented; the measurements in the panel are the ones actually published.
Woolly Mammoth 3D Viewer
This page renders a Woolly Mammoth as a 3D model you can spin in the browser - drag to rotate, scroll or pinch to zoom, toggle a 1.8 m person beside it for scale, and click its head, a leg, or the trunk to read a fact about that part. The Woolly Mammoth was a mammal, not a dinosaur.
Mammuthus primigenius evolved in northeastern Siberia roughly 400,000 years ago and spread across the mammoth steppe of Eurasia and North America. Adults stood up to about 3.4 m at the shoulder and weighed up to roughly 6,000 kg (about 6 tonnes), comparable to a modern African elephant, with curved tusks that could grow past 3 m long.
Most woolly mammoths died out by the end of the last Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago, but a small population survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until about 4,000 years ago - contemporaries of the ancient Egyptian pyramids. Frozen mummies found in Siberian permafrost, including the calf Yuka, preserve real hair, skin, and stomach contents, so mammoths are unusually well documented compared with most prehistoric animals. The species was first described as Elephas primigenius in 1799 by German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Height | up to about 3.4 m at the shoulder |
| Weight | up to about 6,000 kg (roughly a modern African elephant) |
| Tusks | curved, up to about 3-4 m long |
| When it lived | about 400,000-4,000 years ago (Middle Pleistocene to Holocene, Ice Age) |
| Diet | Herbivore (grasses and sedges of the mammoth steppe) |
Everything runs on your device with WebGL, so the model works without an account and without sending anything to a server. Frozen mummies mean real mammoth hair and skin are known, unlike almost any dinosaur, but this specific 3D model is still an artistic sculpt rather than a scan of a mummy; the numbers above are real published values, with a range given where sources disagree.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big was a real Woolly Mammoth?
Adults are commonly cited at up to about 3.4 m at the shoulder and roughly 6,000 kg, comparable to a modern African elephant. Turn on the human figure in the viewer to see the scale against a person.
Was the Woolly Mammoth a dinosaur?
No. The Woolly Mammoth was a mammal, related to modern elephants, that lived during the Pleistocene and early Holocene Ice Age - tens of millions of years after the dinosaurs went extinct.
How long were its tusks?
Curved tusks commonly reached past 3 m long, with the largest recorded specimens measuring around 4 m along the outer curve.
Is the model scientifically accurate?
The body proportions follow the fossil skeleton and frozen mummies found in permafrost, which preserve real mammoth hair and skin - unlike almost any dinosaur. Even so, this specific 3D model is an artistic sculpt, not a scan of an actual mummy. The height, weight, and age figures shown are real published values.
When and where did it live, and when did it go extinct?
Across the mammoth steppe of Eurasia and North America, roughly 400,000 to 4,000 years ago. Most died out around 10,000 years ago, but a population survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until about 4,000 years ago - contemporaries of the ancient Egyptian pyramids.
Do I need to install anything to view it?
No. The model renders in your browser with WebGL - no app, no account, and nothing about your visit is sent to a server. The 3D engine loads once and is then cached.