I am a Mammoth

The Scoppito Mammoth has lived here since 1960

The Mammoth is a mammal belonging to the same family as today’s elephants. It became extinct 800,000 years ago. The one found in Scoppito that lived 1,300,000 years ago belongs to the species meridionalis, which, unlike the better-known woolly Mammoth, had no fur.

Progetto grafico di Francesca Condò – Direzione generale Musei

This Mammoth, considerably larger in sizes than those usually attributed to its species, has only one defence (tusk); the other may have been lost in a fight. The tusk breaking off caused a serious infection, damaging the bone. However, the mammoth survived, even though, due to the great weight of its remaining tusk no longer being counterbalanced (one tusk weighs more than 100 kg), it developed scoliosis and its first cervical vertebrae fused.

After its death, the body, moved by the lake’s current, lay on the shore and was slowly covered by sand and clay.

The clay created an oxygen-poor and mineral-rich environment that facilitated the fossilisation of the bones.