Swiss kayaker stumbles on 20,000-year-old mammoth tooth

Enrico Cavedon holding the mammoth tooth Courtesy of Enrico Cavedon / SRF

An amateur Swiss fossil hunter has discovered a tooth from a 20,000-year-old woolly mammoth while taking a river trip in his kayak.

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Enrico Cavedon discovered the mammoth tooth on the Limmat River near to Baden, in canton Aargau. Cavedon spotted the strange-looking object with grooves embedded in the riverbank.

Because he is interested in rocks and fossils, Cavedon immediately suspected it could be a mammoth tooth.

At home, he sits down at the computer and does some research. His suspicions are confirmed: the find is a mammoth molar. “I was as happy as a child who had found a treasure,” he says in a video on the social media channels of the Naturama natural history museum in Aarau.

Naturama’s Alexandra Wegmann was amazed by the discovery. People usually come across such objects in gravel pits or construction pits,” he said.

Estimated age

Examinations show that it is the molar of a woolly mammoth that probably died quite young – at around 25 years of age. Wolly mammoths could live up to 70 years.

“For carbon dating – the collagen in the tooth was missing. It was probably washed out over the years,” said Wegmann. However, it is estimated the mammoth lived around 18,000 to 20,000 years’ ago.

Other finds in the region suggest this age. For example, it was possible to carbon date a similar find in a nearby gravel pit to an age of more than 18,000 years. And a horse bone also found in the region dated back 21,000 years. “

Historical finds in the ground belong to the canton,” explained Wegmann. “Cavedon and his family are, of course, welcome to come by and admire the mammoth tusk at any time.”

The find will soon be on display in the public exhibition at Naturama.

Adapted from German by DeepL/mga

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