Titans of the Ice Age.

• Position: Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age - The World Yesterday

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FOR MILLIONS of years they survived, living in temperate climates and on the wind-swept lands of the frozen north--great beasts weighing as much as eight tons and bearing tusks up to 16 feet long. Mammoths and mastodons were wonderfully successful creatures of the Ice Age. They were a source of food and artistic inspiration for ancient peoples who lived in Europe, Asia, and North America Yet, despite their size and ability to adapt to different habitats, these early cousins of the elephant eventually went extinct--leaving us an abundant fossil record.

"Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age," an exploration of these fascinating creatures, has as its star a 40,000-year-old, intact baby mammoth specimen named Lyuba, discovered in 2007 by a Siberian reindeer herder and two of his sons. Lyuba (named after the herder's wife) is, by far, the best-preserved specimen of her kind. The exhibition, developed by Chicago's Field Museum, marks the first display of the baby mammoth in the U.S., and includes not only Lyuba, but CT scans and other scientific evidence that confirm existing theories about her species as well as new insights.

The exhibition brings to life how these animals lived--through their interactions with one another and ancient humans--while affording visitors an opportunity to delve deeper into this Ice Age world. The exhibition shows different environments through large-scale projections, walk-through dioramas, and virtual experiences. "Mammoths and Mastodons" features large, fleshed-out creatures and skeletons that can be touched and examined up close. Also showcased are rare and evocative objects including some of the oldest art in existence, huge skulls and tusks, weird and wonderful mammoth relatives--including dwarf mammoths--and mastodon bones gathered by William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) for Pres. Thomas Jefferson's own collection. It also details the scientific methods used to study beasts from the past as well as their surviving relatives: modern-day elephants. Moreover, the exhibit provides the answers to a number of questions, including how these creatures balanced their heavy tusks, how much a mammoth ate in a day, and how elephants "talk" to each other.

The exhibition explores not only how these Ice Age creatures lived, forming herds similar in social structure to those of modern elephants, but how they died and became extinct. It looks at the roles played by climate change, human...