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This is my second mammoth tusk of the year, but while the first I found was rock solid and all that remained was one side of the tusk, this one is whole and a lot more fragile. After getting it home I made the stupid decision to wash it off in the sink, thinking that the sandstone matrix adhering to the tusk was just ordinary sand and river gravel and would come off just as easily. Instead, the water soaked into the tusk's core and when I tried picking it up it snapped in half. It took a couple of days sitting under a window and wrapped in paper towels for the water to finally get drawn back out, but the damage was clearly already done. The outer surface of the tusk is pretty thoroughly mineralized, but the inside is incredibly crumbly. I've seen several posts on the forum already about using butvar solution to stabilize mammoth tusks, but I couldn't find anything that gave a clear, step-by-step guide that would be easy enough for a newbie like me to follow. Aside from stabilizing the tusk, I'd also obviously need to glue the two broken halves back together where they broke apart. However, that's complicated by the fact that tiny pieces of the ivory fell off in the area around the crack when it broke. If you look close in the pictures, you can see that the two halves don't meet up perfectly in the middle anymore. Is there some sort of epoxy or something I could use to fill in that gap? The side of the tusk with the sandstone accretions: The side of the tusk without the sandstone accretions:

Scientists Find Mammoth Seemingly Butchered by Humans on Arctic Island, Gizmodo, Dec. 9, 2020 The presentation is: O. Potapova, I.S. Pavlov, V.V. Plotnikov, E. Maschenko, M. Dehasque, B. Shapiro, L. Dalen, N. Suzuki, J.F. Hoffecker, A. Protopopov, 2020. A New Woolly Mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799) from Kotelny Island, Novosibirsk Archipelago, Russia. 80th Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting (October 12-16, 2020) 80th Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting (October 12-16, 2020) Abstracts Yours, Paul H.

Since the Peace River, FL has been running deep and fast for the last few weeks I decided to spend some time prepping and making a display for several proboscidean bones found in the spring. After posting the bones for id here when they were found and doing a bit of research on my own I believe what I have are pieces of an ulna from either a Mammoth or Mastodon. There is the possibility of Gomph, but Dr. Hulbert has informed me a couple of times that Gomph specimens have not yet been found in the Peace River. So first up is a photo of the four ulna sections along with the other specimens found that day. Several pieces in the pink plastic bucket were later able to be reattached to a couple of the ulna sections. I did come up with one additional ulna section on a return visit to the same spot later that week. Next is a photo of the four ulna pieces lined up for an overall idea of size. Two of these large pieces were able to be put back together after consolidation and formed the standing piece in the display. They are the two in the middle in the below photo. Finally, three photos of the completed display with rulers to get an idea of proportion. The metal ruler laying flat is 15" overall. The standing portion of the display consists of two pieces I was able to glue back together after consolidation it measures about 20". Two of the pieces laying flat had smaller pieces from the pink bucket in the first photo reattached after everything was consolidated with acetone and PVA beads. I used some scrap wood to make the tray table and post support. Some soft toy modeling clay was used to rest the base of the upright bone on. Clay was also used to form a ball over the top of the wooden support post to prevent the post from damaging the specimen. The tray table was filled with sand to lay the additional pieces on and give it a finishing touch. Looking forward to getting back to the Peace River in the coming week to see what new wonders have been uncovered by the summer rainy season!

Hi im and amateur collector and I'm not sure if the was the right section to post this under. I purchased this tusk a couple years ago. The seller said he's had it since the 1970s. Because of the large crack from top to bottom and the inside is quite powdery. Is there and thing I can do to preserve it? Its about 6.5 feet along the curve and 120lb so I get worried when I move it. Also I see that great patina on some tusks is that something that is added 5o make it shine or does it comes out of the ground like that? Any help would be appreciated!

Hello, I am looking for tips on how to distinguish the teeth of a woolly mammoth from a steppe mammoth or a forest elephant. Thank you in advance

June 5, 2010 Barry held his camera barely two feet away from the back of an Agkistrodon piscivorus. Although a small snake, it was still very dangerous and he positioned his camera based on years of experience with these reptiles. Known more commonly as a Cottonmouth or Water Moccasin, the twelve inch juvenile snake had coloration similar to the closely related Copperhead. However, its patterns were muted by late afternoon shadows in a remote location that was not favorable to an easy medical evacuation. So, we slowly moved away and eased our paddles back in the water to complete an adventure which began long before daylight. Almost twelve hours earlier my friend and I had packed our gear, food, and water into my eighteen foot canoe. Soon after, our paddles fell into a synchronous rhythm that allowed us to quietly experience an aquatic wilderness. We were searching in Texas - hunting in alluvial debris and Pleistocene terraces for the slightest hint of extinct creatures. Our unrushed pace allowed us the time to get a feel for the local geology. Occasionally, groundwater from the surrounding area made its way to the base of the Pleistocene gravels and created springs which emerged just above older impermeable shale. The cool water supported rich vegetation that resisted the summer sun. It was also a visual key to the strata we were trying to find. A little later, we found an area where the gravel spilled onto a ledge just above the water. Almost immediately I spotted a gravel encrusted bone fragment. I looked over to see Barry higher up on the river terrace. Still scanning the area, I hollered, “Hey, I found some mineralized bone over here. Uhhh…wait, here’s another one.” I noticed the second piece was gnarly and pitted while Barry made his way down to inspect my finds. “What do you think of the encrusted bone?” I asked. He replied, “Not sure; but there’s no doubt it’s old. Which bone do you think it is?” I tried to imagine the fossil without the encrusting gravel, “Looks like it could be the ‘joint’ end of a scapula…I’m not sure about the second one, though.” Before and after cleaning – proximal scapula & unknown fragment I headed back to the canoe to pack away my finds while Barry searched further down the ledge. It wasn’t long before he yelled he had found more bone, and after I paddled the boat over to him, he grinned and asked me to find the camouflaged fossil. The fragment was difficult to spot amid the varied textures of rock and silt. We were off to a good start. Barry's mineralized bone fragment In Texas, June temperatures can quickly reach the upper 90’s. We maintained a regular fluid intake and an occasional soak in the water. Proper hydration and cooling were essential for us to enjoy an amazing adventure versus a headache pounding endurance test. Since we still had more than a dozen miles to travel, the hot conditions could not be ignored. A few miles later a short rocky ledge barely emerged from the water. It looked like a good spot to check and take a break. What I really did not expect was to step a few feet from the boat and see a broken stone dart point. I looked at it with a little skepticism; the area seemed like a place fisherman would use to access the water and I wondered if someone had passed the time trying to replicate an ancient weapon. But the patina on a few nearby flakes confirmed the find was old. Barry searched the rocky debris fan on the downstream end of the ledge. I let him know to keep an eye out for more than bone and kept scanning the ground. Before me was an area the size of two cars where the water had peeled away part of an upper bank which had slipped into the water. I stopped. There, in the gravel and weeds, were more flakes…and another dart point! As I reached for my camera, I saw another broken point by my knee…a cool moment. Then things started to get comical - in an amazing sort of way - because as I took the photo of the first point, I spotted a third one just beyond it…an incredible moment! Still kneeling in the same spot, I yelled to Barry, “Hey, you’re not going to believe this, but I’ve found…hang on….” I shook my head in disbelief at the fourth late Archaic projectile point tucked in the gravel. “You have to come over here, now,” I smiled. I tried to explain to him what had just happened – pointing out each of the finds. He was as awestruck as I, but we both almost lost composure when, within seconds of ‘show and tell’, another light colored point met my eye a few inches from where I laid the paddle. I edged backward to get a good camera angle. Then, I just looked up at Barry in stunned silence and back down again beside my other knee at a small gray-purple dart point. That is when we both erupted with the excitement of two kids. “I’m now walking away. There have to be more here; so you find them,” I jokingly announced as I headed upstream to survey the ledge. Savoring an unbelievable fifteen minutes of discovery included the analytical questions forced by the finds. Often people have asked, “Where did these artifacts come from?” Sometimes the answer is simple because the ‘site’ still exists. Other times, I will touch two fingers together in front of me, representing a point in space, because similar coordinates may be all that remain of ancient eroded camps. My quick recon of the area seemed to confirm a similar origin for these artifacts. Our timing had offered us the chance to experience something that would have been erased by the next flood. My six dart points fill Barry’s hand Barry’s voice carried down the bank, “I found one!” I saw him gently scratching the sand and gravel in the weeds. I took in the view of the area because I wanted to remember this place and time. Barry called out again, “Hey, you should see this large white base I found!” By the time I made it back to him, he had found another dart! While he pointed out his finds, I felt like we were functioning in a mild state of shock – still trying to wrap our minds around what was happening. After a few more broken finds and photos, we cooled off in the water. In all we found 19 pieces; some were complete and some were fragments. Dream-like remnants of the artifact discoveries stayed with us for miles. I told Barry I was not sure I would have believed the event if I had not been part of it. Roughly thirteen hundred years earlier, someone made the weapons we found. Handling them was like touching an old pocket knife owned by your great grandfather or holding an old wooden spoon used by your great grandmother - except, they were much older and no one remembered the owners anymore. We could not know what the circumstances were during the last moments someone held these artifacts, but we were the next men to hold them and imagine those days. We found a few pieces of fossil bone over the next couple of hours and it really began to get hot. To get relief from the temperature, we paddled closer to the shady banks. On few occasions we startled beavers from their dens. Not many things can get your attention quicker than a forty pound animal hurtling into the water on the edge of your vision. My only regret was that the camera had not recorded our comical reactions. Then, as we rounded a large bend, a huge gravel bar came into view. In the distance, I could see something big lying on the rocks. “Barry, what’s that?” “I don’t know….” He shaded his eyes and leaned forward, then exploded, “IT’S A HUGE GAR!” He spun to face me, “Can I have the SKULL?!” He spun back, “It’s HUGE! You’ve got to let me have it, please!” He sounded like a ten year old begging for his favorite birthday present. It was hilarious. But my smile was temporarily gagged when I caught a whiff of the almost dry carcass. “If you can separate the skull from the rest, you can have it…but it stays on your end of the canoe,” I winced. The smell matched the size of the alligator gar – it was a monster. I was fascinated to see such a large specimen up close. Barry finally separated his prize from its ragged remains. Then, he placed it in the canoe under his seat and we continued to search the bar. The multi-colored gravel camouflaged many pieces of petrified wood and the new ‘gar skull owner’ took advantage of the canoe’s carrying capacity. We left shore a little heavier and smellier. Unfortunately for me, the prevailing wind came from the bow of the boat. I joked with him about the odor coming from his direction, but he firmly insisted he was unaware of any stench. On another bar, the gravel teased us with more bits of bone; then Barry spotted a large brown lump. He called me over to take some photos. Whose bone he had found was not immediately obvious; but it had some size. Only after he freed it from the sand were the features of a large vertebra confirmed. Likely from a mammoth, it had suffered the erosive effects of time and water. Yet, Barry grinned. He had accomplished one of the goals we had for the trip – find mammoth bone. The heat was relentless, but we kept cooling off and drinking. Even the butterflies were frequently tapping moisture and minerals in the damp sand. Eventually, we reached an area where the channel narrowed and we took advantage of the shade. I was looking for beaver dens when Barry cried, “Snake! Back there by the large stump!” We buried the paddles in a series of strong back strokes to reverse our direction. I finally spotted the handsome reptile crawling into a small pile of logs. I could tell he wanted to catch it, when he almost whispered, “Elaphe obsoleta lindheimeri.” After three seconds of heat affected thinking, I realized he had not issued curses to move faster, but had just named the scientific classification for a Texas Rat Snake – the name that had passed through my mind 5 seconds earlier…. Barry scrambled up the bank and had the snake in hand within two minutes. He slowly manipulated it while I took photos. I have always enjoyed my encounters with these non-poisonous reptiles. They can be very aggressive and strike repeatedly, or try to intimidate any threats with their loud hiss and vibrating tail. He left on the log where we found it. About a half hour downstream we were exposed again to the late afternoon sun. It reflected from the water and the barren high bluffs beside us. We paddled and scanned both water and banks. Through the salty sweat in my eyes, I saw something out of place halfway up one of the bluffs. “OK, that can’t be what I think it is, can it Barry?” A bowling ball sized dome contrasted sharply with the surrounding tan soil. We slowed the canoe to a stop. I remembered the “dome” of a four foot mammoth humerus I had found almost a year earlier…. My heart rate increased. Barry insisted, “John, that shape is too perfect; it has to be a bone.” The closer we got the boat, the more my pulse quickened. From fifteen feet below it, I still had to get closer to allow myself to acknowledge the obvious…it was a bone! We positioned the canoe as close as possible to the vertical bank. The water was not moving fast there, but it was deep. In a tricky move that involved me stepping on the tip of the stern and stabbing my rock hammer into the soil of the steep ledge above, I pulled myself up to a spot where I could rest. Our access point was a little downstream of the “dome”, so I had to dig footholds to make my way to the find. It was impressive when I could finally rest beside it. “Hey Barry, it’s bone!” I grinned. After a difficult time staging a few digging tools, we started to excavate. I carefully determined the perimeter of the fossil and had some vivid flashbacks to last year’s humerus find. However, the deeper we dug, the more it became apparent that the rest of the bone was not attached. We tested the ‘ball’ for movement and it popped free of the matrix below. In the soil below, we did not find any more evidence of bone. Initially it seemed there was a large scavenging scar across the surface, but after cleaning, the mark appeared to be an eroded part of the internal vascular structure. Other old gouges and marks may have been due to ancient scavenging. Shape and size suggested I had found my first mammoth ‘femur ball’ or the head of the femur. Regardless of the number of mammoth fossils I have found, they never cease to spark my imagination. Mammoth femur head – approx. 7 inches in diameter Scars and vascular structures The shadows had begun to lengthen by the time we loaded the femur ball and started back downstream. Temperatures had dropped a few degrees which energized us for the next few miles. In a large eddy, we saw another snake crossing the water and sped up to see it. Both of us recognized the juvenile Water Moccasin as it paused and floated on the water. Barry pulled out his camera and I positioned the canoe to assist him. All was going well until the young snake thought the boat would make a good rest stop. The most important result of the next few moments was that no one entered the water, and nothing entered the canoe. I repositioned us to allow the little pit viper to reach the bank. It seemed to respond to the security of solid ground and assumed the confident demeanor of the species. We reached the take-out after twelve hours on the water. Tired, but feeling the satisfaction of an incredible adventure, we completed a relatively short shuttle run back upstream. The trip had so many layers – so many memories. We hunted and found what we sought. And somewhere between our imaginations, the water, willows, cottonwood, and stone, we caught a reflective glimpse of the ancient hunters.

ID help appreciated. Found diving near Venice Beach, Florida.

Hi all, Someone offered me to sell his what he called to be a baby mammoth tooth. I have been looking around but I am a bit suspicious about the root. I would appreciate if you would kindly put some expertise on it before I buy it. Unfortunately the origin is not known, but it is probably found by fisherman in the North Sea. Thanks for helping me out! Ronny

I found this digging in a phosphate mine in Florida 20 years ago when I was pretty young. I don’t remember exactly where. Although, I do still remember we found a mammoth thoracic vertebrae and someone else found an equus mandible in the same general area. I’m not the best with carpals and tarsals. I can only regularly recognize calcanei and astragali. I was under the impression it was from a mammoth or some other Proboscidean. It wouldn’t surprise me if I was completely wrong. Anyone know what it is?

Hi, I found these a few months ago at Happisburgh. I'm hoping the black orange bit is a mammoth tooth fragment. I also found this grey rock, I've tried to look online but can't find anything similar looking to work out what it is. Many thanks.

Hi all, I wanted to know if Proboscidea incisor is just another name for tusk... I’m considering putting in a bid on everyone’s favorite auction site, but I wanted to make sure it’s tusk.

I decided to make my first handmade knife special by finishing it with handles made out of stabilized mammoth ivory. This needs some final sharpening, but I'm happy with it!

Hi, not too long ago I went to East Runton and Happisburgh in the hopes of finding some fossils, whilst the best time to go is winter, I was happy going in Summer. Apparently, fragmentary Mammoth molars are found commonly at Happisburgh during winter months. I found possibly two bits of mammal bones, possible fossils shells (one was in the clay cliff) and an orange belemnite. Is it possible to identify the bits of bone, or are they too small? Possible fossil shells Possible bits of bone. The top bit split when I picked it up, unfortunately the split bit then split, so that's just drying now after being glued. Orange belemnite

This is a tusk I recovered from a river sand bar in Iowa 24 hours ago. The tusk was in somewhat damp sand. It started to degrade right away once it was unearthed. I wrapped the tusk in a towel but it did dry out a bit. I got it home about 5 hours later and re-wrapped it in damp towels. I am writing this post to spell out my plan based only on reading some other posts but not based on any experience. I would appreciate any advise. What am I missing or doing wrong? -Add many zip ties to hold tusk together. Leave crusted-on sand for now. -Wrap with damp towels and wrap that with plastic trash bags, NOT completely airtight. -Store in dry basement for several months to gradually dry out. -After drying period, carefully clean and "baste" with paraloid b-72 50:1 -Use more concentrated paraloid b-72 to glue loose parts. Lots of small crumbled pieces to deal with somehow. -Cure for several days and then fill voids with PaleoSculp (or equal) a little bit at a time. -Sand and buff -Make a stand and show off! Thank you for looking!

A first for me and the most beautiful tooth I’ve ever found! Pretty excited about this one. Obviously not an expert here but I think I’ve got it narrowed down to juvenile mastodon. Hopefully I can get a positive ID from the experts! Miocene, south central SD.

This caught my eye and I'm lacking ice age material. Before bidding, I thought it best to double check it is mammoth and not horse or bison or something. It is 35 inch along the curve. It was found in the North Sea by fishermen. If someone can take a look, that would be great. Thanks.

Hi all, I found this in Polk county Florida on the peace river, and was wondering if it is ivory or part of a tooth? TIA

Hi all, I received a jar of fossils from my grandfather a couple years ago before he passed away, and was wondering what type of tooth it was. Most of the stuff in the jar is from Florida but I’m not positive everything is. It is 2 1/4 inches long. my guess is it’s either a mammoth or horse tooth.

Hi everyone, I have here some fossils, mostly teeth, from a river in Central Florida. I'm pretty sure I know what some of these are, and if anyone could confirm or correct me I'd appreciate it! I know the first one is a Megalodon fragment. The second one could be a great white. I'm less sure about the last one. My question here relates to the 9 shark teeth to the top right. I think the second is a Mako and the third is a Tiger, but ultimately not sure on any. Prehistoric crocodile/alligator tooth? It looks like a crocodile or alligator femur to me There's one I have no clue about Based on my knowledge, deer tooth? Manatee molar? I'm not sure about these. I wanted to say mammoth or mastadon tusk fragments, but I don't know if such fragments can be identified. This is more of a general question. Is there any way to wager a guess as to what these random fragments could be? Would it include turtle shells, marine mammal bones, and so on? Thank you!

Hello, this was found on a southern Minnesota river rock/sand bar. I have a guess what it is but wanted to see what your unbiased opinion is by not divulging my suspicion. It dense but pretty light like a piece of very hard plywood. This was found by a friend who loves hunting river banks and rock bars...

Hi, i was looking through bone fragments from my Florida in February, and found this in them. I’m wondering what it is? It’s 1 3/4 inches and from Polk county.

A find from yesterday

Another find today from the Brazos River just southwest of Houston. The grooves on top of this piece look very similar to pictures of mammoth teeth that I have seen before, but it is obviously far too small to be a full tooth or even half of one. Is it just a fragment? And is it even really a mammoth tooth? If it's a pseudofossil after all, it's a darn convincing one. It's definitely mineralized and has a crystal-like sheen with slight sparkles here and there when it catches the light. Any help on an ID would be great!