edHelper.com Animal Themes Prehistoric Mammals Theme Unit

Elephants in Furs!

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Elephants in Furs!
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 6
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	4.69

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		clone, deinotheres, elephant-like, Full-grown, mastodon, movie-makers, nipple, permafrost, petersburg, scruffy, underfur, shaggy, mummy, mainly, hump, leathery
	content words:		Poor Dima, Ice Age, So Manny, North America, Ross MacPhee, American Museum, Natural History

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Elephants in Furs! By Colleen Messina

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¹     Little Dima had a sticky time. She had wandered away from the herd. She went right into an oozing bog. Poor Dima! Her feet got stuck. She couldn't move. She became a mummy. She was discovered thousands of years later by someone riding in a bulldozer.
 
²     Don't worry, little Dima wasn't a person even though the word Dima means "little girl." She was a baby mammoth! Scientists discovered Dima in Siberia in 1977. She was buried in permafrost. Permafrost is ground that has been frozen for thousands of years. Animals in permafrost are mummified. They still have their muscles and other soft tissues. This helps scientists learn a lot about them.
 
³     Scientists figured out that Dima was only 6 to 8 months old when she got stuck. Her mummified skin looks black and leathery. Her feet still have tufts of fuzzy, brown fur on them. She looks like she lived a short time ago. Scientists are sure that she had gotten lost before she died. Mammoth babies stayed with their mothers, but Dima was alone. Dima is now in St. Petersburg. She is the best-looking mammoth mummy in the world. Scientists are happy that they found her.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
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