One of the more intriguing periods in the history of North America was the Pleistocene Epoch. It was a time when the earth was locked in the chilling grip of an Ice Age, it was also a time of transition when man and prehistoric beasts shared the continent.
The Woolly Mammoth
The Zuko Mammoth Tooth Fossil
Specimen.
This rare, and gigantic 7 inch (179 mm) "Collector-Grade" late Pleistocene Woolly Mammoth tooth is approximately 25,000 years old.
The tooth was found in the Netherlands in Pleistocene deposits in the Rhine River. This well preserved tooth is in remarkable condition with great chewing surfaces and superb roots. (few mammoth teeth are ever found with complete roots.)
The Woolly Mammoth roamed North America and the European continent during the Pleistocene Epoch in the Quaternary Period (the time in which we now live).
Ancient cave paintings found at
prehistoric archeological sites provide solid evidence that the (now
extinct) Woolly Mammoth shared the planet at the same time as Paleolithic man.
The Pleistocene began about one million years ago and was a time that
saw massive ice sheets, some as thick as 10,000 feet, (that's nearly 2
miles thick) covering much of the Northern Hemisphere along with
several mountain ranges in the Southern Hemisphere. The
earth was a cold and hostile place in this time period and this
particular "ice age" produced at least four very significant glacial
advances that didn't retreat until approximately
10,000 years ago.
The Woolly Mammoth was an imposing creature standing up to 14 feet tall
at the shoulder, and brandishing massive curved tusks that were as much
as 13 feet in length. The Woolly Mammoth was well equipped for life in
the ice age with a thick hide and a massive fur coat. These large
animals all became extinct sometime near the end of the Pleistocene. (Likely
hunted to extinction by Paleolithic man.)