Woman finds rare baby mammoth tooth on morning beach run

By Amy Mackrill

A jogger was left 'jumping for joy' after finding a rare 80,000-year-old baby mammoth tooth while out on a beach morning run.

Lucy Parkes, who regularly hunts for fossils along the beach between Mundesley and Overstrand in Norfolk, spotted the tooth just as she was about to take a dip in the sea.

The rare prehistoric discovery, which is 6cm long and 4cm wide, is believed to be a molar of a juvenile steppe mammoth, making it 800,000 years old.

Parkes said, “I was jumping for joy, it was very exciting.

"I feel like the sea delivered it to me.

"I’m very honored and privileged to be the recipient.

"This is my most exciting find yet."

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Parkes, a dog listener who runs her own business, has found fossilized sea urchins, echinoids, bones and sponges along the beach before.

Julie Curl, bone specialist and research associate with Norfolk Museums Service, confirmed the tooth belonged to a 'very young juvenile mammoth'.

She said: "It looks like the molar of the large steppe mammoth, the same species as the famous West Runton Mammoth from the 1990s.

"The approximate date for this baby mammoth would be around 800,000 years old.

"These baby mammoth teeth are less common, largely due to their small size and being harder to spot among rocks and debris."

There have been various rare fossil finds along the Norfolk coast in recent years.

In 2021, palaeontology student Jack Norton found a large adult mammoth tooth on the beach near Trimingham, and last October, mammoth bones were uncovered at West Runton.