10.5" Woolly Mammoth Molar - North Sea

This is a large, 10.5" long molar of a Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) It comes from the Doggerland Bank in the North Sea and would be Late Pleistocene in age, around 40,000 years old. This molar is particularly well preserved for the North Sea material.

These fossils have been submerged in salt water for over ten thousand years, so they had to go through a lengthy stabilization process so they do not disintegrate. The fossils are immersed for six weeks in constantly refreshed fresh water. They are then slowly dried and stabilized with a museum standard conservation layer, which not only preserves the fossils but also brings out their natural stunning coloring. This process takes around two to three months to complete.

Comes with a display stand.

These Pleistocene fossils were dredged up by fishing trawlers in the the North Sea between Britain and Denmark. Fishermen routinely find mammoth teeth and many Ice Age fossils in their nets: given the chance that a fossil is accidentally gathered in a net is slim, the sea floor is probably littered with the remains of millions of animals. The cold temperatures and low-oxygen environment of the North Sea have aided in the preservation of these teeth and bones.



While these fossils have been pulled up in nets for more than a century, they used to be frequently discarded. It wasn't until the past two decades that this material has begun to be systematically collected and studied. By recording the locations of their finds and allowing scientists to make observations before the more common material is made available, much has been learned about the fauna that once roamed the land that now lies 30 to 150 feet below the North Sea waters.

You can read more information about this at the following link.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-watery-grave-of-europes-monsters-1744973.html
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Mammuthus primigenius
LOCATION
North Sea, Doggerland Bank, Netherlands Coast
SIZE
10.5" long, 4.7" tall, 3" wide
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#87484
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