1st September 2010

DORCHESTER: North Sea mammoth tusks at Dinosaur Museum

TWO superb examples of woolly mammoth tusks have gone on display at the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester as the centrepiece of a display on Mammoths. The tusks originate from the North Sea. Between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago the North Sea did not exist and England was connected to the continent by low-lying pastures. Prehistoric mammals such as mammoths, woolly rhinos, horse and bison fed off the fertile lands.

The tusks date to the end of this period and are unusually coloured owing to them having been in water, under the sea, for so long a time. The fully-grown tusks of Woolly Mammoths were extremely long, up to an amazing 5 metres; and very curved. They were possibly used to aid the search for food and to demonstrate sexual prowess. The sections of tusk on display are each about 1.5m long.

“The new display comes at a time when new research has revealed that humans were not responsible for the extinction of the mammoths. It had traditionally been thought that mammoths had been hunted to extinction,” said Tim Batty curator of the Dinosaur Museum.

“However it now appears that it was climate change that caused their extinction. Mammoths were well adapted to the low temperatures of the Ice Age. The climatic conditions during the Ice Age did not favour the growth of trees and consequently there were extensive grasslands for the mammoths to graze on. However with the end of the Ice Age and the warming of temperatures tree growth accelerated causing a spread of forests and dramatically reducing the available food supply for mammoths.”

The tusks became buried in the thin layers of sand at the bottom of the shallow southern region of the North Sea. Here they remained for thousands of years as they became fossilised. Eventually tidal currents and dredging released these fossilised remains to be caught in fishing nets of a trawler.

The award winning Dinosaur Museum is in the heart of Dorchester and is open daily. Over the Bank Holiday weekend it is holding the Great Dinosaur Hunt from 28th to 30th August.

DORCHESTER: North Sea mammoth tusks at Dinosaur Museum

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