Why mammoths loved the cold

Temperature-sensing protein made the hairy beasts prefer to be cool

Wooly mammoths

Woolly mammoths were fat, hairy and could tolerate extreme cold. Now researchers have tracked down some molecular changes that contributed to those adaptations.

Courtesy of Giant Screen Films © 2012 D3D Ice Age, LLC

A single genetic change may have made woolly mammoths fat, hairy and cold-loving.