The Durfort mammoth: history and restoration project

Cécile Colin-Fromont , Régis Debruyne (1) , Vincent Lebreton (2) , Florent Goussard (3) , Gaël Clément (3)

1 AASPE - Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
2 HNHP - Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique
3 CR2P - Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris

In 1869, Paul Cazalis de Fondouce and his friend Jules Ollier de Marichard recognize mammoth remains in some rubble. This prompts an excavation to extract the mammoth skeleton, which they presume is complete. Both men are aware of the importance of their discovery, located in a region previously not known to have remnants of this period. After several turn of events, the National museum of natural History acquires the Durfort mammoth. The crates containing the fossil remains arrive at the Jardin des Plantes in 1874. A first assembly is done in 1875. Since 1898 and to this day, this remarkable specimen is exhibited in the Gallery of paleontology and comparative anatomy of the National museum of natural History. Weakened by disassembly and assembly, the vagaries of time, and exhibition-related degradation, the Durfort mammoth will benefit from a complete restauration starting in spring of 2022.

Domains: Paleontology; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Archaeology and Prehistory

Cécile Colin-Fromont, Régis Debruyne, Vincent Lebreton, Florent Goussard, Gaël Clément. The Durfort mammoth: history and restoration project. Table-ronde sur « Le mammouth de Saint-Prest et ses contemporains », Feb 2022, Chartres, France. ⟨mnhn-03908592⟩