Mammoth findings on display in Lucerne museum

Wide-bucket excavators aren’t the tools of choice for archaeological digs, but sometimes you can’t be too picky.

An astute workman was quick to realize the machine he was operating struck something special at a Lucerne-area gravel pit.

That “something” was a 45,000-year-old mammoth tusk, about 180 centimetres long and about 50 centimetres in diameter at its thickest part.

“It’s a rarity to find something like this in Switzerland,” according to Benedict Hotz, deputy director of Lucerne’s Museum of Natural History. Found in Ballwil in 2006, the tusk is now on display at the museum for the first time.

“Fortunately, there wasn’t too much damage,” says Hotz, pointing to the wedge-shaped gap where the heavy-duty machinery nicked it.

The tusk was still moist when found buried under 20 meters of thick gravel. In order to preserve it for display, the conservation process involved embalming the tusk in a waxy substance.

The ivory is too brittle for exposure to the open air, so it’s stored in a glass case and nestled in gravel to simulate its origins.

Meanwhile, a second tooth is also new to the collection in Lucerne. At 60,000 years of age, it’s the oldest mammoth tusk ever found in Switzerland.

This one was discovered in Luthern, canton Lucerne, 10 years ago. While not as curvy as its younger cousin, this specimen is heftier.

Were it whole, it would weigh about 80 kilograms. It was also found in a gravel pit.

Together, the two tusks are now part of the museum’s permanent display, which also includes about a dozen smaller specimens such as a mammoth molar, tusk fragments and a pre-historic antler.

Hotz notes that most finds in this part of the world are small; typically, tusks and other bones break apart and are lost forever.

Not so in parts of Siberia, where entire mammoth cadavers have been found. This has made it possible to decode mammoth DNA and to compare the extinct giants to today’s elephants.

“Indian elephants are genetically closer to mammoths than they are to African elephants,” says Hotz, who notes that modern science could probably clone a mammoth using an Indian elephant as the mother.

However, he is quick to point out that this wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing.

There are a few theories as to why the great woolly mammoths died out. Possible culprits include climate change, changes in vegetation, ruthless hunters or an epidemic.

“But we’ll probably never really know,” says Hotz.

This week, the museum also unveils a stuffed example of an animal that was extinct in Switzerland for over a century – the wolf.

The new specimen was a former resident of the Landscape and Animal Park Goldau.

Unfortunately, the keepers had to put the female down after ot fell victim to bullying by the park’s alpha-wolves.

The wolf's carefully-prepared body now enjoys a prominent position in the museum’s permanent collection, calling attention to the public respect and enthusiasm shown for the dozen or so wild wolves living in Switzerland today.