Woolly Mammoth Tusk Fossil from Alaska – Ice Age Fragment

This authentic Woolly Mammoth tusk fossil fragment is an impressive elongated section recovered from a gravel bar in Alaska's Tanana River Valley. At 154mm long, the piece displays a weathered brown and grey outer surface with natural longitudinal texture, while the exposed inner section reveals the warm cream and golden tones of fossilized tusk material. The irregular fractured areas and contrasting surfaces provide a fascinating look at the structure of an ancient mammoth tusk.

Specimen Details

✓ Fossil: Woolly Mammoth tusk, Mammuthus primigenius
✓ Specimen: S976
✓ Locality: Tanana River Valley, Alaska, USA
✓ Geological Age: Pleistocene Epoch / Ice Age
✓ Material: Fossil mammoth tusk / fossil ivory
✓ Condition: Naturally weathered and fragmented
✓ Size: 38mm x 154mm x 10mm
✓ Weight: 75 grams

The Woolly Mammoth

The Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was one of the great herbivores of the Pleistocene Epoch. Closely related to modern elephants, it was adapted to the cold northern environments of the Ice Age, with a thick coat, dense underfur and insulating body fat.

Alaska formed part of Beringia, the vast Ice Age landscape that once connected Alaska and Siberia. This cold, dry environment supported extensive grasslands where mammoths and other large Ice Age animals lived.

As the Ice Age ended, the climate became warmer and wetter, changing the mammoth-steppe habitat and reducing the grasslands on which mammoths depended. Human activity may also have contributed to their decline. Most mainland Woolly Mammoths disappeared around 10,000 years ago, although isolated populations survived much longer. The last known Woolly Mammoths lived on Wrangel Island until approximately 4,000 years ago.

Why Are Mammoth Tusks Often Broken and Split?

Complete mammoth tusks are much less commonly recovered than fragments. After death, a tusk could remain buried for thousands of years while being exposed to pressure, moisture, mineral changes and repeated freezing and thawing. These processes can create weaknesses and enlarge natural cracks within the dentine.

River systems can cause further fragmentation. As Alaskan rivers erode ancient sediments and permafrost, mammoth remains can become exposed and move through gravel deposits. Contact with rocks and gravel can break already-fractured tusks into smaller sections.

The fractures and exposed interior of this specimen are therefore part of its natural story. They reveal the structure of the ancient tusk while recording its long journey from an Ice Age mammoth, through burial and preservation, to discovery in the Tanana River Valley.