Details

LOT 2495

Woolly Mammoth Fossil Tusk

PLEISTOCENE PERIOD, CIRCA 40,000 B.P.

16 in. (620 grams, 40.5 cm).

From Mammuthus primigenius, professionally conserved and polished to a high standard.

Provenance

Acquired on the UK art market.
From the private collection of an East Anglian, UK, specialist collector.

Literature

See Guide to the Elephants (Recent and Fossil) in the British Museum (Natural History), BM, 1922, pp.35-47, for discussion.

Footnotes

The mammoth lineage branched from the Asian elephant around 6 million years ago, and later on, the Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, evolved in eastern Siberia. Woolly mammoths, being slightly smaller than living African elephants, were foragers and ate grass, as well as small, nutritious flowering plants that flourished in the environment where they lived. They may also have used their curved tusks to dig through snow and eat plants that other foragers were unable to reach.