Het verwisselen van eigenaar van een onderkaak van een sabeltandkat aan het begin van de vorige eeuw en nu

In February 1886, Mr. James Backhouse, an avid fossil collector from York in the United Kingdom obtained a fossilized right mandible of a saber-toothed cat ( Homotherium latidens). The jawbone still had all teeth and molars. The mandible was discovered in the Forest-bed formation (Middle-Pleistocene, some 780.000 — 450.000 years ago) near Kessingland in Suffolk, East Anglia. This fossil was in his collection for a very long time as one of his most prized specimens. After his death, it was auctioned in London in December 1907, along with many other vertebrate fossils. It was bought for 70 US dollars, the most expensive item of the auction. The lucky bidder was none other than the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. The jaw is still in the museum collection today, as exhibit NMING: F15001.