Description
Large Section of Fossilised Mammoth Mollar, Pleistocene 400,000 years old
This is a large section of Fossilised Mammoth Mollar and is 400,000 years old. It is from the Danube valley in Hungary. This section of tooth measures 14cm to its longest point, and is an excellent state of preservation. Although this one is incomplete it is still quite a substantial part of the Mammoth Molar.
Mammoths were members of the elephantidae family. They are therefore related to elephants that are alive today. Various species existed, over the course of 5 million years, in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America. The largest species were 4 metres high and weighed up to 8 tonnes. The northern species of mammoths were covered with long hair and had long curved tusks. They also had the ability to grow new teeth when old ones became damaged and worn. The Pleistocene period over two and a half million years ago is associated the beginning of the last Ice Age. Temperatures began to plummet, this led to ice and glaciers and covering large areas of planet earth. This lasted until approximately 11,700 years ago, in geological terms this is comparatively recent. Mammoths have been extinct for only a relatively short time, somewhere in the region of 4000 years.
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