Woolly mammoth tooth

'This was the very beginning of mammoth fossils being studied in Europe. This and other fossils eventually proved the existence of an extinct Pleistocene megafauna in geologically quite recent times.'
Dr Paul Taylor, palaeobiologist

This Siberian woolly mammoth tooth was one of the first mammoth fossils brought to Europe and studied by naturalists. Sir Hans Sloane examined the fossil tooth in 1728 and added it to his ever-expanding collection of worldly objects.

Sloane realised the tooth came from a relative of modern elephants, but interpreted this as meaning Siberia had experienced a tropical climate before the biblical flood killed the inhabitants. Other scholars disagreed with Sloane and developed their own theories.

Specimens like this one kick-started the scientific study of mammoth fossils in Europe, igniting debates about the evolution of extinct megafauna. The number of plates in the tooth indicates that it belonged to a species that is rare in Siberia, so the specimen is of considerable scientific as well as historic significance.

Read more about the last of the mammoths >
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