Villager digs his garden and finds 400,000 year old steppe mammoth tusks

The homeowner in the village of Oy, Yakutia was digging in his grounds to plant potatoes and cabbage when he came across the rare find.

The extinct steppe mammoth tusks are 270 cm long with a 'root' diameter of 50 cm.

Steppe mammoths predated the woolly mammoth for which Yakutia - also called Sakha Republic - is famous.

Remains of woolly mammoths are common here, but steppe mammoths are exceptionally rare and far older, dating back probably 400,000 years. 

Regional historian Prokopiy Nagovitsyn was in the party sent to investigate the villager's discovery which he called 'extraordinary'. Pictures: The Siberian Times

Regional historian Prokopiy Nagovitsyn was in the party sent to investigate the villager's discovery which he called 'extraordinary'.

'Due to understandable reasons we are not giving the exact location and the name of the find's owner,' he said. 

'We were invited as experts to assess the find.

'Paleontologists are on the way to study it further.'

Further details are expected soon.

A full skeleton of a steppe mammoth was found in Nizhny Bestyakh in Yakutia in 2015. Pictures: The Siberian Times 

'These are tusks of a steppe mammoth - so the find will be dated to approximately 400,000 years ago,' he said. 

'A full skeleton of a steppe mammoth was found in Nizhny Bestyakh in Yakutia in 2015. 

'These tusks are extremely old and fragile - so stay away mammoth tusk poachers. 

'The find has a huge scientific significance.'

The steppe mammoth was a species of Elephantidae that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during Middle Pleistocene times, 600,000-370,000 years ago

The steppe mammoth was a species of Elephantidae that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during Middle Pleistocene times, 600,000-370,000 years ago. 

It probably evolved in Siberia during the early Pleistocene from Mammuthus meridionalis.

The males had spiral tusks with a recurved tip up to 4.9 metres (16 ft) in length in old bulls.

Females had thinner and slightly curved tusks.

With a height of 4 metres (13.1 ft) at the shoulders the species was larger than the woolly mammoth which lived until around 3,500 years ago.