Woolly Rhinoceros Bone

Before humans dominated the Earth, we shared it with creatures that make our largest living animals look modest. The Woolly Rhinoceros — massive, thick-haired, humped at the shoulder, crowned with a horn that could reach a meter in length — walked the Pleistocene tundra alongside mammoths and cave lions. It was a sight that our ancestors painted on cave walls.

This specimen is a piece of fossilized Woolly Rhinoceros bone, recovered from the North Sea — which was not always a sea. Eight thousand years ago it was a tundra connecting the British Isles to continental Europe. When the ice melted and the waters rose, it swallowed the land and everything on it. Trawlers and dredges have been pulling up the bones ever since.

It arrives set into a padded gem jar inside a glass-topped riker display case (4½" × 3½"), with a photo display card that serves as certificate of authenticity and includes information about the Woolly Rhino on the reverse.

• Fossilized Woolly Rhinoceros bone fragment
• Pleistocene Period — recovered from the North Sea
• The North Sea was tundra until ~8,000 years ago
• Padded gem jar in glass-topped riker display case — 4½" × 3½"
• Photo display card / certificate of authenticity included

The tundra flooded. The bone survived. The sea gave it back.