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Juvenile Wooly Mammoth Mandible Fossil
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| Accession #: | 1065.1 |
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| Title: | Juvenile Wooly Mammoth Mandible Fossil |
| Object Type: | Specimen, Animal |
| Participants: | |
| Physical Description: | Wooly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) partial mandible with left and right third lower molars erupted and in wear. The stage of wear on the M/3 molars indicates that this mammoth was approximately 6 +/-1 years of age; a "young juvenile" mammoth. |
| Description: | Mammoths with dramatically curved tusks ranged across Eastern Washington during Earth's most recent ice age. In 1876, two homesteading families unearthed a trove of mammoth bones and tusks along Latah and Pine Creeks, and trundled their discoveries to county fairs from Colfax to Portland. Ten years later, Chicago's Field Museum assembled parts of several Latah Creek animals into North America's first mounted mammoth skeleton, 13 feet tall at the shoulder. The American Museum of Natural History purchased an 800-pound Pine Creek skull to be a type specimen - the fossil that defines the Columbia mammoth species. In contrast to the Columbia mammoth, this lower jawbone came from a wooly mammoth that died around the age of six. Scientists estimated the animal's age based on its molars, which were still developing when the animal died. |
| Category: | History |
| Subjects/Topics/Concepts: |
Natural History (Natural History); Fossil (Natural History)
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| Geographical Reference: | Alaska (National) |
| Dimensions: |
Object H x W x D 8 1/2 x 12 1/2 x 14 "
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| Materials/Techniques: |
bone (material) (Material)
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| Related Exhibits: | |
| Credit Line: | Gift of George Rule, 1939 |
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