23" Woolly Mammoth Jaw with M3 Molar - Germany

This beautiful fossil is a partial lower jaw of an adult woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). It was collected from the Rhine River of Germany and is between 20 and 50 thousand years old. This amazing example is the right half of the mandible (lower jaw) with an M3 molar locked in position. The tooth shows feeding wear and the prisms (hard enamel structures), dentine, and cementum are in very good condition.

Comes with display stand.

The Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primegenius) is an iconic Pleistocene animal. It had long, wooly hair, tusks that extended up to 9 feet, and stood about 12 feet tall. They ranged across the northern hemisphere and were one of the most abundant Pleistocene creatures, ranging from eastern Eurasia throughout most of North America. Their existence overlapped with that of humans: early cave paintings have been discovered depicting these massive mammals, and humans likely hunted them to extinction in some areas.

They are also some of the most studied prehistoric animals in part because many carcasses have bene preserved in the Siberian permafrosts, keeping skin, muscle tissues, and even their distinctive woolly hair intact. Recent genomic sequencing of chromosomal DNA in some of these preserved specimens has revealed that Woolly Mammoths are most closely related to African elephants: their chromosomal DNA is up to 99.5 percent identical.


The gravel deposits along the Rhine River used to produce a large number of Pleistocene fossils while miners quarried for gravel aggregate. They have become much harder to come by in recent years as the quarry operations have become more mechanized, often destroying fossils in the process.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Mammuthus primigenius
LOCATION
Rhine River, Germany
SIZE
Jaw: 23" long, Molar: 9.7" long
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#235234
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