Partial 5" Southern Mammoth Molar - Hungary

This is a nicely preserved 5" long partial molar of a Southern Mammoth (Mammuthus meridionalis). It was collected from the Pleistocene gravel deposits of Hungary. This tooth is very heavily mineralized unlike the more frequently available North Sea Mammoth molars.

Molars of the Southern Mammoth are much rarer than those of the Woolly Mammoth.

Mammuthus meridionalis, or the southern mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth endemic to Europe and central Asia from the Gelasian stage of the Early Pleistocene, living from 2.5–1.5 mya. With a height of about 4 m. (13 ft) and estimated weight of 8 to 10 tons, M. meridionalis is one of the largest proboscideans to have ever lived. Its molars had low crowns and a small number of thick enamel ridges, adapted to a woodland diet of leaves and shrubs. This indicates it lived on a relatively warm climate and probably lacked the dense fur of the more recent Woolly Mammoth.