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20,000-year-old Mammoth Fossil Unearthed in Northeast China
Archaeologists say that the recently discovered tooth fossil of a 20,000-year-old woolly mammoth in Anshan, in northeast China's Liaoning province, is a priceless addition to scientific research of the species.
The woolly mammoth was a huge, prehistoric mammal which once lived in northeast China and became extinct about 10,000 years ago, said Zhu Mingye, head of the Museum of Anshan. The tooth fossil was from a mammoth which evidently drowned in a marsh. Experts said that it is the first find of a mammoth tooth in the area, although other fossilized remains of mammals have been unearthed before.
Archaeologists believe that other parts of the mammoth are buried in the vicinity of the tooth, and if they can retrieve at least one third of the bones they can reconstruct the mammoth's skeleton.
Study of the tooth fossil will also help research of climate during the prehistoric times and the evolution of elephant, according to the experts.
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