Object Details

From:NHerts

Name/TitleMammoth remains

About this objectRemains of a mammoth, found during building work in Baldock in 1921, consisting two portions of a tusk and one molar tooth. Mammuthus primigenius was covered in dark hair and adapted to the cold steppe and tundra of the Ice Age. It grew to around 3.4 m high.

During the first Coronavirus lockdown of 2020 North Hertfordshire Museum Visitor Services Assistant Nicola Viinikka researched and gave her opinion on this object.

What is the most interesting thing about this object?
It shows that there may have been mammoths in this area. It was also the case that during the Ice Age, Neanderthal man did hunt and eat mammoths, so these remains could be evidence of hunting activity.

Further information
This mammoth tusk was discovered when sewers were being laid in Salisbury Road, Baldock, in 1920. It was close to an ancient stream bed that continued as a winterbourne (a stream that flows only in Winter) into Roman times.

Mammuthus primigenius (the Latin name for woolly mammoth) was covered in dark hair and adapted to the cold steppe and tundra of the Ice Age. It grew to around 3.4 m high.

Origins
Woolly mammoths are the extinct relatives of elephants. They are the best known of all the mammoths.

They lived during the Pleistocene era (AKA the Ice Age), the geological period that lasted from 2.5 million years ago, to approx 11,500 years ago, when the Holecene period began, the geological period we are still living in.

It is assumed that the woolly mammoth became extinct because of the end of the Ice Age. However, there are exceptions (see recent mammoth discoveries, below).

Facts about mammoths
• They are most closely related to today’s Asian elephants.
• They grew up to 13 feet (4 metres) tall and weighed around 6 tons (5.4 metric tons)
• They were covered in a cost of thick brown hair, to keep warm in the tundra of the ice age; they even had fur-lined ears.
• Their ears were much smaller than elephants’, to reduce heat loss and frostbite.
• Their tails were much shorter than elephants’ tails, for the same reason.
• Their skin was no thicker than a modern elephant’s, between 1.25-2.5 cms, but underneath the skin, they had a protective layer of fat, up to 10 cms deep.
• They had large, curved, tusks, which may have been used for fighting, but would also have been used as a digging tool, to forage for food under the snow.
• Mammoths mainly ate shrubs, grasses and roots.
• Their tusks had a thin enamel covering, but were mostly made up of two materials; cementum and dentine. (livescience.com)
• They were hunted by Neanderthal man, who depended on them for food.
• Recent research suggests that Neanderthal man actually shared certain characteristics with mammals, which helped them adapt to living in such cold conditions. (But see note 1 below). (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190408123240.htm).

Recent mammoth discoveries
• Our mammoth tusk was found in Baldock in 1921, during building work, but there have been a number of other more recent discoveries, both locally and abroad.
• The permanently frozen ground of parts of Siberia (known as permafrost) has helped the preservation of mammoth remains, which has allowed for more research into mammoths.
Here are some specific recent mammoth discoveries;
1. In 2007, a pair of mummified baby mammoths were found in Siberia. They were so well preserved, that CT scans were able to reveal that they died from choking on mud, 40,000 years ago.
2. A fossil mammoth’s tooth found in 2015 (in Wrangel Island, off the coast of Northern Russia) suggests that a tiny population of mammoths still existed there until 4,300 years ago. It is thought that they died off due to inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity (www.brittanica.com)
3. In October 2018, remains of a woolly mammoth and a woolly rhino were found in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire. Workmen on a project to upgrade the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon, were digging for materials in a dried up river bed and unearthed these remains. Palaeontologists (experts in fossils) think the remains could be at least 130,000 years old. This is important, because it is further evidence of mammoths existing in this area.
4. Woolly mammoth remains have been found on most continents of the world, except Australasia and South America.

Note 1:
This is a theory put up by an Israeli professor in 2019 and there is no evidence that the work has been peer-reviewed.

PeriodPalaeolithic (750,000-10,000 BC)

Medium and MaterialsEcofact | Bone | Animal bone

Named CollectionLetchworth Museum

Object TypeAnimal remains

Object number1921.778

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved