CreatorLeibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (collector)

Place of OriginLindenberg; Thiede; Salzgitter; Germany

Datepleistocene; radicarbon dating: 34.240 years; 1692 (excavation)

DescriptionThis petrified tooth of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) used to belong to the collection of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who served the House of Hanover from 1676. The fossil tooth allowed Leibniz to prove that the assumed bones of a giant were, in fact, those of a mammoth. It was probably amongst the founding objects of the University of Göttingen's Royal Academic Museum.

Tagspaleozoology; mammoth; Mammuthus primigenius; tooth; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz;

Dimensions120 x 85 x 170

Material/Mediumfossil

Image LicenseCC-BY

Image Rights HolderGeorg-August-Universität Göttingen

Photographic CreditsStephan Eckardt

Metadata RightsCC-0