3-year-old boy finds woolly mammoth tooth

Gary Kidd had a pretty good idea that what his 3-year-old grandson had found was no rock, but the tooth of a woolly mammoth. That's because he had found one himself nine years ago.

Kaleb Kidd was chasing squirrels Monday at a family friend's property near La Crosse when he spotted what looked like an unusual rock.

"Grandpa, what's that?" Kaleb asked.

He told his grandson it looked like the tooth of the extinct woolly mammoth.

Next stop was the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, which confirmed that it was, indeed, the tooth of a mammoth...

--USA Today

Mammoth bones loom over Paris sale

For sale: a mammoth skeleton, a 150-kilogram meteorite and a kind of giant pearl formed in the stomachs of certain animals.

Christie's auction house in Paris is hosting an unusual auction of paleontological curiosities, including several prehistoric mammals. The sale takes place Monday.

Bidders interested in buying the star specimen — a 15,000-year-old Siberian mammoth dubbed "The President" — will need at least $199,000. And a lot of floor space: Tusks and all, it's 12.5 feet high and 16 feet long.

Skeletons of a 10,000-year-old, 13.5-foot-long rhinoceros and a 7.5-foot-high cave bear are also going under the hammer...

--USA Today