An extraordinary woolly mammoth molar from Alberta, Canada

Unusual dental remains of a late Pleistocene woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius (Elephantidae, Proboscidea) were recovered from a gravel quarry near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The pair of teeth is unique because: (1) it comprises a morphologically normal left M6 and a true supernumerary M7; (2) the teeth are united by hypercementosis; and (3) the M7 is grossly malformed as the result of ‘fabricational noise’ (cf. Roth 1989) during its development. Identifying the fabricational anomalies and determining their etiologies led us to propose a model (to be described elsewhere) of elephantid dental progression that explains specifically the type of anomaly presented in our specimen. The Alberta specimen presents also an occlusal anomaly that occurred as a consequence of the initial fabricational anomaly.