Mammoth Teeth & Bones
Above Image by Mauricio Anton.
North Sea Mammoth Teeth - Mammuthus primigenius
North Sea Mammoth teeth are becoming scarce. We did think at one point that we would not be able to get any more. But we've been lucky to get a small collection from the fishermen of the North Sea. If all goes well we might get a few more. These are from the Doggerland/Brown Bank and are dated between 30,000 - 40,000 Years old. All are treated with a special varnish that hardens and preserves the tooth. Because they have been in saltwater for so long, it is essential for this treatment to have been done. It stops them drying out. The teeth were soaked for a long while in fresh water when they were first found to remove as much salt as possible. They are then treated with a museum grade Butvar B-76 varnish.
European Southern Mammoth Teeth - Mammuthus meridionalis
Inland European Southern Mammoth fossils. Found in the Donau river gravel deposits. These are solid teeth from Caves and river deposits and are heavily mineralised, and better preserved than North Sea finds. They are also not as common.
Dated to the Pleistocene, Novi Sad / Donau River / Serbia 2.5 - 1.5 Million years old (Gelasian) It weighed 8-10 tonnes. Height; 4 metres high at the shoulder. Lived during the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene times.
With a height of about 4 m. (13 ft.) and estimated weight of 8 to 10 tons, M. meridionalis is one of the largest proboscideans to have ever lived, along with other larger species of mammoth, and the earlier Deinotherium. It had robust twisted tusk, common of mammoths. Its molars had low crowns and a small number of thick enamel ridges, adapted to a woodland diet of leaves and shrubs; this indicates it lived on a relatively warm climate which makes more probable that it lacked dense fur.
