Straight tusked elephant tooth

Donated by the British Association for Advancement of Science committee. This molar is believed to belong to a now extinct species named the straight-tusked elephant, which surprisingly had slightly upward curving long tusks. It is closely related to the surviving Asian elephant. The species survived many of the last glacial events while preferring the warmer interglacial, during which it migrated to Great Britain. They became extinct in Britain at the beginning of the last glacial event approximately 110,000 years ago, however survived up to 3.000 years ago in places such as Japan and isolated Mediterranean islands. This specimen was collected in Smerdon’s Passage, Kents Cavern, on January 21st 1870.
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