Fossil near Holzkirchen: mammoth molar found - inspection possible
Created: 01/10/2023, 07:00
By: Jonas Napiletzki
Freshly cleaned: the molars of a woolly mammoth who must have died 25,000 years ago west of what is now Holzkirchen.
Willibald Braun from Dietramszell found the tooth.
© Norbert Strauss
While searching for stones, a geologist came across a fossil: Willibald Braun pulled a 25,000-year-old mammoth molar out of the ground near the Teufelsgraben.
Holzkirchen
– Willibald Braun never looked for a molar.
Nevertheless, he found one: the good piece is twelve by nine centimeters in size, the white and yellow colossus protrudes over six centimeters in width.
Like his tooth, the former owner has been underground for a while.
"Pretty much exactly 25,000 years," says Norbert Strauß from the Holzkirchen Geo-Trail project group.
He had the find identified as a mammoth molar in the Palaeontological State Collection in Munich.
An almost unbelievable fossil, at least for the region.
Strauss explains that it was a coincidence that Braun discovered the tooth.
The geologically interested Dietramszeller went to the border of the neighboring district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen near the Teufelsgraben in search of conspicuous stones.
This point - between the B13 south of Holzkirchen and Dietramszell - is geologically defined as the "Würm end moraine", explains Strauss.
During the Ice Age, the Isar-Loisach Glacier ended here in the Wolfratshausener Lobus - a so-called lobe of the glacier.
Here, of all places, a company had prepared the mining of gravel and dug the underground - perfect for those interested in geology.
Tooth is about 25 000 years old
But nobody would have expected fossils of a mammoth there.
"Apart from the tooth, there is no other mammoth find in the region," says Strauss.
The Holzkirchner explains: "The animals needed a grassy landscape to survive." Around Holzkirchen there was only gravel and a little moss - not enough for a hungry mammoth.
Most fossils of this type are therefore found north of the Danube, says Strauss.
The only exception so far has been a find in the Allgäu and the complete mammoth skeleton, for which the municipality of Siegsdorf in the Traunstein district is known.
Braun, however, has the right eye for geologically valuable objects: "The tooth root looked out of the gravel," says Strauss, who discussed the find with Braun.
With the help of the geologically defined site, the age of the fossil can be derived at around 25,000 years.
The fact that the tooth appeared exactly where mammoths could hardly find any food was probably related to a hunt.
Strauss explains the cub may have been cornered up the steep slope and in front of the glacier in an attempt to kill it.
Mammoth was apparently female
After examining the state collection, Strauss concludes that the mammoth must have been a young animal.
Based on the type and size of the tooth, the number of lamellae and the minimal wear on the chewing surface, the molar – the technical term for a molar tooth – came from a young adult, presumably female Mammuthus primigenius, a so-called woolly mammoth.
Conclusions can be drawn, for example, from the size of the teeth: unlike humans, mammoths would renew their teeth, which consisted of only four teeth, a total of five times in their lives, with each tooth that grew back being larger than the previous one.
"Once the sixth teeth are worn out, the animals must starve if they don't die first."
After exchanging information about the find on the Dietramszell corridor, Willibald Braun and Norbert Strauss agreed to have it conserved.
Since there was a lack of funds for the expensive work, the two took on this task on their own under the guidance of the Natural History and Mammoth Museum in Siegsdorf.
In a six-week procedure with immersion baths in solvents, with synthetic resins and drying phases, it was possible to stabilize the tooth.
Now the original condition is almost restored.
The tooth
can be viewed from today in the foyer of Holzkirchen town hall.
There it will be displayed in a showcase next to information flyers.
In February, Braun hands over the tooth to the museum in Siegsdorf, where it is also exhibited.
Other finders should also get in touch, appealed to Strauss.
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