BILLINGSHURST, UK – On Wednesday, one of the most complete known Woolly Mammoth skeletons with tusks sold in England for £189,000. Known as “Monty,” the iconic Ice Age mammal was purchased by a private buyer from the UK.

Because of its impressive size of 3.5 meters (11ft 6in) in height and 5.5 meters (18ft) in length, it was suggested that Monty was a male and may have weighed up to six tonnes (6.72 tons) in its lifetime. The 30,000-50,000 year old creature, which had been in an old private Eastern European collection for years, had never before been assembled prior to arriving at the Summers Place auction house in West Sussex, England.

Errol Fuller, the curator of the auction, said: “Although Mammoth are not as rare as some dinosaur skeletons, the chances to buy an almost complete skeleton don’t come up very often. We had interest from private buyers as well as institutions from around the world…”

The most famous animal of the Ice Age, the Woolly Mammoth died out about 10,000 years ago.

To get an idea of what the Mammoth looked like in its prime, just imagine the elephant of today covered in fur – long fur on top with a shorter undercoat – with smaller ears and a shorter tail to minimize frostbite and heat loss. Mother Nature equipped it well to cope with Ice Age temperatures in the steppe that stretched across northern Eurasia and North America.

The Mammoth’s diet was mainly grass and sedges, which explains why it only had four molar teeth, and also stunning, long curved tusks. The woolly Mammoth co-existed with early humans, who hunted them for food and used its bones and tusks for making art, which also explains why complete skeletons are so rare.

Visit Summers Place online at www.summersplaceauctions.com.

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