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WOOLLY MAMMOTH THORACIC VERTEBRA WITH RARE COMPLETE UNBROKEN PRESERVATION Eastern Europe (Hungary) LATE PLEISTOCENE PERIOD: 200,000 - 20,000 years ago WOOLLY MAMMOTH fossils are one of the most visually impressive display fossils. The famous Wooly mammoth can be considered the mascot animal of the Earth's final Ice Age and this massive beast most certainly gained respect to all that got in its way including both Neanderthals and modern humans. With this rare listing we offer a spectacular UNBROKEN AND COMPLETE thoracic vertebra from a European Woolly mammoth. Rare is the presence of the unbroken dorsal and transverse spines as well as the neural canal structure. Most often, these delicate spines are broken off and finding a specimen with a complete part of this anatomy is rare. Centrum and bone surface detail is very dense and in spectacular preservation and natural light brown color. The bone is heavy and unsually well preserved. From a rare location! INTACT WITH NO REPAIR AND NO RESTORATION. Perfect to display with Primitive Man tools and artifacts since these beasts played such an important part in so many ways of the lives of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. True European Woolly mammoth fossils are far more scarce and rarer than Russian (Siberian) fossils and fetch higher market prices because of this.
Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) were first recorded in Eurasian deposits of the second to the last Ice Age, approximately 150,000 years ago. Woolly mammoths descended from the Steppe mammoths (Mammuthus trogontherii). Over time, the cheek teeth of Woolly mammoths evolved into a design of more numerous and tightly arranged enamel plates with less thickness. The tusks of the Woolly mammoth developed a more dramatic curvature and their overall body size decreased. The tusks of the Woolly mammoth were most notable and amongst the largest of all elephants - both living and extinct. Tusk lengths could attain 16 feet and were often dramatically curved. It is theorized the tusks of a Woolly mammoth were used as a form of rake or shovel to sweep aside snow in search of food when foraging. These changes were advantageous in surviving the increasingly cold conditions of the last Ice Age. Such teeth modifications enabled the Woolly mammoths to chew tougher tundra vegetation. The reduction of body size accompanied by the reduction of the ears and trunk along with the development of a thicker pelt enabled the mammoths to survive in the harshness of a frozen world. A full grown Woolly mammoth stood around 10 - 12 feet high at the shoulder and weighed in at 6 - 8 tons. Despite connotations of the word "mammoth" indicating immense proportions, the Woolly mammoth is actually not the largest mammoth that ever lived. The Imperial mammoth was the largest and the North American Columbian mammoth was even larger than the Woolly mammoth. The Woolly mammoth was about the same size as a present day Indian elephant but with a layer of fat and fur. Preserved carcasses have been found in frozen tundra which allows us to know what the heavy coat of the Woolly mammoth was like. Their fur was similar to that of the musk ox, consisting of long, dark hairs and fine under wool, with dark-grey skin and an insulating fat layer. It is most likely that Woolly mammoths molted in summer like Musk oxen. Another prominent feature of the Woolly mammoth was a high-domed skull with high-peaked shoulders resulting from the long spines of the neck vertebrae likely to anchor a large fat deposit.
Mammoths were herbivores. The teeth of a mammoth are amongst the most bizarre teeth of any animal ever known. From the side, they resemble an extended accordion and are made up of a row of vertically oriented attached plates that when worn, create a washboard-like grinding surface. This surface was ideally suited to grinding up hard-to-digest foods such as tough grasses and other thick vegetation. A mammoth has four teeth in its skull, two uppers (one on each side) and two lowers. Over the course of the life of the animal, six sets of teeth will grow, a worn set being pushed forward and out to make room for a new and unworn set. This characteristic is still true of modern elephants. A baby mammoth at age 6 will have already had three sets of teeth. By 13 years of age, the fourth set emerges followed by a fifth set at age 27 years. The final set of teeth come in around 43 years of age and as it wears away, the animal eventually starves to death and dies on average between 60 and 80 years of age. Interestingly, the animal's life is limited by the fact that after the sixth set, no new teeth grow in to replace the final worn down set and the animal is no longer able to chew its food. Mammoth teeth can also tell us the age and species of the creature. Scientists can approximate age by comparing the length and width of the molars to corresponding age and tooth size charts from modern elephants. The species is determined by the number of ridges found in the first four inches of the flat chewing surface.
It is believed that the end of the last Ice Age and the warming of the Earth caused the Woolly mammoths to die out at the end of the Pleistocene Period. The DNA of an extinct wooly mammoth is 95% identical to an Indian elephant. With recent discoveries of wooly mammoth remains frozen in tundra, there are ongoing attempts to clone intact DNA with that of the modern Indian elephant. Woolly mammoth remains have been found in northern regions of North America, Eurasia and Europe. RARELY DO YOU FIND SUCH WELL PRESERVED, COMPLETE AND UNBROKEN WOOLLY MAMMOTH VERTEBRA SUCH AS THIS 8" across x 7.25" high overall SOLD LM8-105 Actual Item - One Only |
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Emerging 55 million
years ago, the group of mammals called Proboscideans are identified by
the presence of tusks and a trunk and include mammoths, mastodons and
elephants. The oldest mammoth remains have placed the beginnings
of the beasts in Africa but eventually, they migrated to Europe and
Asia. Around 1.7 million years ago, the Ancestral mammoth began
reaching North America and later evolved into the Columbian mammoth,
otherwise known as the American mammoth. 
Woolly
mammoths had smaller ears and a shorter trunk than modern-day elephants.
Many Woolly mammoths have been found with large, elaborately curved
tusks. Both the males and females possessed tusks, but the
females’ tusks were smaller. Tusks began to form at birth and
continued growing throughout life, adding about a 1/4 inch a year in
thickness as they grew. Most of the tusk is comprised of a
material called dentin but in layman's terms, we call it ivory.
The undersides of Woolly mammoth tusks often show wear, suggesting that
they were used in scraping snow and ice off ground cover vegetation
during feeding. Woolly mammoths also use their tusks for
protection against predators, attraction during mating and as a display
of dominance to other Woolly mammoths. The longest tusk ever found
was almost 16 feet and weighs 208 pounds.
In
the latter years of the last Ice Age, the Woolly mammoth co-existed with
humans such as the Neanderthal and the Cro-Magnon people.
Prehistoric cave paintings in France and Spain have been found with
images of the Woolly mammoth including hunting scenes. Throughout
world regions where Woolly mammoths existed at the same times as humans,
kill sites have been discovered where mammoth carcasses had been
butchered. At these sites, scientists have found both
