Out of This World II Tuesday, 18 April 2023, 4pm

931* PAIR OF MAMMOTH TEETH M. primigenus 200 000–300 000 years North Sea, Netherlands 28 × 21 × 11 cm (without stand) 24 × 19 × 10 cm (without stand) Amammoth was a large Ice Age elephant, a herbivore, that roamed the northern latitudes of the early pre-Columbian earth, grazing on grass. Mammoth teeth, which are about 6 in (15 cm) wide and equally long, are the largest in all of the animal kingdom and wonderfully adapted to crush woody vegetable matter. One could say that the stately mammoth‘s life story is preserved in its tooth, composed of dentine surrounded by enamel, showing a wavy line of dentine as unique as a fingerprint. In the 18th century such teeth were found in Siberia attached to frozen mammoth carcasses. In North America as well, beautifully preserved skeletons of mammoth were found. Often the bones were crushed, but the teeth were hard as rock and survived over time. Mammoths died out approximately 10 000 years ago. Baron Georges Cuvier (1769–1832) based his theory of the phenomenon of mass extinction on catastrophic climate changes. Concerning the frozen mammoths found in the Siberian permafrost, he considered that abrupt climatic deterioration was the crucial agent responsible for both their death as well as their preservation. This is a very nice pair of fossilised mammoth teeth from the North Sea. They have been fitted with custom-made stands. CHF 2 500 / 3 000 (€ 2 500 / 3 000) | 38 Out of This World | Natural History, Space Exploration & Entertainment Memorabilia