A man inspecting erosion in Devon after last year’s floods was surprised to find that the damage had revealed more than just mud; eagle-eyed Simon McHugh spotted a large molar buried in the dirt, which was later identified as a mammoth tooth weighing 2.2kg and measuring 20cm in length. After Mr McHugh pulled the tooth out of the mud he passed it onto experts and found that it was between 20,000 and 70,000 years old and the mammoth it belonged to was approximately twenty when it died.
The tooth was found along the River Otter near to Newton Poppleford in Devon and experts from the London Natural History Museum agree that it is unusual to find a mammoth tooth from the last ice age; it is the first one found in the county for over two hundred years. Mammoths are thought to have died out around 3,000 years ago, due to climate change and hunting.
Mr McHugh, who works as a biodiversity technical officer, said that ‘The tooth has very good definition which would have been lost if it had been transported far down the river. It was only after I retrieved it and examined the tooth more closely that I realised I’d found something special.’
The owner of the land where the tooth was found has agreed to donate it to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter but before it can go on display it has to be specially preserved to make sure that it won’t fall apart in the future.