Woolly Mammoth

Vermont designated the woolly mammoth tooth and tusk as its state terrestrial fossil in 2014. The legislation specifically names the tooth and tusk rather than the whole animal, reflecting which mammoth remains most often turn up in Vermont — isolated teeth and tusk fragments recovered from fields, stream banks, and drainage ditches across the state. The designation made Vermont the only U.S. state with two separate official fossil categories, pairing the mammoth with the beluga whale, which has been the state marine fossil since 1993.

Woolly mammoths were large relatives of modern elephants covered in thick reddish-brown fur that kept them warm in the cold climates of the Pleistocene. Males stood up to 11 feet at the shoulder and weighed up to 6 tons. Their curved tusks could reach 14 feet in length and were used for foraging, fighting rivals, and clearing snow to reach vegetation. A large hump of fat sat behind the head, similar to a modern bison.

Woolly mammoths grazed on grasses, sedges, and low shrubs across the tundra and grasslands of northern North America and Eurasia. They lived from about 400,000 years ago through the end of the Pleistocene. Most populations died out about 10,000 years ago as the climate warmed, forests expanded, and human hunters spread across the continent. Small island populations survived until about 4,000 years ago.

Vermont already had a state fossil — the beluga whale, adopted in 1993 — when the legislature considered adding a land-animal counterpart. In 2014, the General Assembly designated the woolly mammoth tooth and tusk as the state terrestrial fossil, splitting the fossil category in two. The beluga was simultaneously reclassified as the state marine fossil.

The choice of tooth and tusk over the full skeleton reflects the practical reality of mammoth fossils in Vermont. Complete skeletons are almost never found here. Isolated teeth and tusk fragments are the most commonly recovered mammoth material in the Northeast, turning up in farm fields and stream cuts as glacial deposits erode.

Mammoth remains in Vermont are found scattered across the state in glacial lake deposits, stream sediments, and agricultural soils laid down during and after the last ice age. Finds tend to be isolated, typically a single tooth or tusk fragment rather than an articulated skeleton. The Champlain Valley lowlands and river valleys of central Vermont are the most common areas for such discoveries.

The Perkins Museum of Geology at the University of Vermont in Burlington holds mammoth material from Vermont alongside its collection of Champlain Sea fossils. Because mammoth remains can surface during farm work, construction, or stream erosion, new finds in Vermont are reported to the state geologist.