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Description

More of my natural history museum photography can be seen in my DA "Paleo & Sci Illo" gallery:
lexlothor.deviantart.com/galle…
This battered mammoth mandible was excavated from glacial deposits in the State of Washington. It is noteworthy as this individual was elderly when it died. Mammoths, as is the case with all true elephants have molars that have developed griding plates for milling vegetation. The molars erupt sequentially diagonally in the mouth so as to maximize the wear life of each successive tooth. As these are worn down they move forward in the mouth until the stubs are spat out. All elephants have dental mortality, a sort of planned obsolescence. Once the last set of molars is worn down the animal will starve to death. This seldom happens in the wild as few individuals reach this stage of senescence. This specimen represents an animal that came very close to this maximum life expectancy. Its final set of molars are worn down nearly to the gumline. Asymetrical wear also suggests a pathology of the mouth that might have contributed to this mammoths' ultimate demise.
This example is on display at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
photo & text (c) John P. Alexander

Description

More of my natural history museum photography can be seen in my DA "Paleo & Sci Illo" gallery:
lexlothor.deviantart.com/galle…
This battered mammoth mandible was excavated from glacial deposits in the State of Washington. It is noteworthy as this individual was elderly when it died. Mammoths, as is the case with all true elephants have molars that have developed griding plates for milling vegetation. The molars erupt sequentially diagonally in the mouth so as to maximize the wear life of each successive tooth. As these are worn down they move forward in the mouth until the stubs are spat out. All elephants have dental mortality, a sort of planned obsolescence. Once the last set of molars is worn down the animal will starve to death. This seldom happens in the wild as few individuals reach this stage of senescence. This specimen represents an animal that came very close to this maximum life expectancy. Its final set of molars are worn down nearly to the gumline. Asymetrical wear also suggests a pathology of the mouth that might have contributed to this mammoths' ultimate demise.
This example is on display at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
photo & text (c) John P. Alexander