Woolly mammoth skeleton auctioned for 150,000 pounds in UK

A rare near-complete skeleton of an Ice Age woolly mammoth has fetched a whopping 150,000 pounds at an auction in the UK.
The skeleton, which was found in eastern Europe and is between 30,000 and 50,000 years old, was bought by a UK-based private buyer at an auction in West Sussex.
The skeleton was expected to fetch between 150,000 and 250,000 pounds at the sale on Wednesday, BBC News reported.
The Summers Place Auctions said the skeleton - 18ft high and 11ft 6in long and weighing up to six tonnes - was found decades ago but had only recently been prepared and mounted.

It took four people to lift the mammoth's skull and fix it to the body, according to curator Errol Fuller.
The auction house said complete skeletons were rare but isolated teeth, bones and tusk fragments were occasionally found.

The specimen sold by a private collector is 90 per cent complete, the report said.
Woolly mammoths, which were covered in fur and had long, curved tusks, died out about 10,000 years ago.
Another item in the auction included an 11 inch elephant bird egg which fetched 69,960 pounds.