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Which animals lived in the Ice Age?

The Pleistocene—the time from 2.5 million

The Pleistocene world

afo With so much sea water locked up in polar ice, Pleistocene sea levels were as much as 400 ft (120 m) lower than present ones.

^ The Bering land bridge W connected North America to Asia. Mammoths, jaguars, and lions crossed between the two.

jłję The Central American land *** bridge formed before the Pleistocene. It allowed sloths, armadillos, and capybaras to move north, and big cats, horses, and camels to move south.

.***. Australia and New Guinea were linked during the Pleistocene. Both had marsupial wolves and kangaroos.

ąt* Africa and Arabia were

connected to Asia long before the Pleistocene started. African animals migrated to Asia and Europę, and vice versa.

to 10,000 years ago —had several ice ages, when polar ice covered northern parts of Europę, Asia, and North America. Many land mammals had thick coats to cope with cold climates. Others lived in warmer parts of the world.

How to:

be a woolly mammoth

Survive when food is scarce by drawing on stored energy in your large, fatty hump (like a modern camel’s).

RECORD

BREAKER

The steppe mammoth was one of the biggest mammoths—it stood 14.8 ft (4.5 m) tali!

There were around a dozen mammoth

species, found across Africa, Asia, Europę, and North America.

w m Have large, broad teeth so that you can browse on grass, leaves, and other plant foods.

w ■ To keep cozy in the bitter cold. You’ll need a layer of fat beneath the skin, a thick, hairy undercoat, and coarse, 3.3-ft- (1 -m-) long top hairs.

Back to life

Scientists have taken DNA from a brilliantly preserved frozen baby mammoth carcass, known as the Yamal mammoth. They may be able to use it to create a clone—and bring mammoths back from extinction!

■ Use your long curved tusks to battle rivals, dig up plants, and scrape bark off trees.

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