Man discovers mammoth tooth while kayaking on Swiss river

A kayaker in Switzerland made an astounding discovery as he was paddling along the River Limmat. Enrico Cavedon discovered the special object, which later turned out to be a large mammoth’s tooth.

Man finds mammoth tooth on the banks of the Limmat

While kayaking along his favourite stretch of the Limmat near the city of Baden last September, Cavedon spotted a strange-looking object on the bank. Having taken a closer look, he knew that it was something both rare and special. When he returned home, Cavedon turned to the internet to try and identify the sensational find, and soon his suspicions were confirmed: it was a 20-centimetre-long molar tooth from a mammoth.

Once common across Europe, Asia and North America, mammoths could reach 3,5 metres tall and weigh up to 8,2 tons - the weight of nearly three standard buses used in Canton Zurich. Though the species went extinct between 4.000 and 10.000 years ago, its DNA lives on in elephants.

“I was as happy as a child who found treasure,” Cavedon said in a video for the Naturama natural history museum in Aarau. Alexandra Wegnam, head of the collection at Naturama, told SRF that she was amazed by the find, noting that it's the first ever mammoth-related discovery in the Baden region. 

Pristine tooth up to 20.000 years old

Thanks to its near-pristine condition, she added that they know "the mammoth probably died quite young, at around 25 years of age" - mammoths could live into their 70s. Though difficult to say, they estimate the molar is between 18.000 and 20.000 years old.

Sadly for Cavedon, he will not be able to keep his special find. "Historical finds in the ground belong to the canton…Enrico Cavedon and his family are, of course, welcome to come by and admire the mammoth tusk at any time," Wegmann concluded. The mammoth molar will soon be put on display at Naturama.