Hobby archaeologist finds mammoth tooth in Holland-on-Sea

Chris Bien, 56, from Worthing, was visiting Holland-on-Sea as part of her birthday celebrations when she found a mammoth tooth on the beach.

She made the discovery on Thursday, March 21.

She said: “We were looking for fossils, like bones or wood, and I went and sat by the rocks in Holland I looked down.  

“I could see a wavy pattern that looked like a tooth and then I started to brush the sand away and realised how big it was.  

“I really had to dig it out and then I could see the lines and the fact that it was a mammoth tooth.” 

Chris, who has a keen interest in archaeology, volunteers for her local museum and is part of the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society. 

She thinks the tooth could have belonged to a steppe mammoth, one of the largest mammoth species. 

These giants were ancestors of the woolly mammoth and roamed around the earth around 1.8 million years ago. 

Scientists believe this species lived in what is now Europe between one million to 700,000 years ago. 

The piece, which seems to be the root of the tooth measures six-and-a-half to seven inches in depth and width, a huge size for a fossil. 

Chris already has a collection of mammoth bones and a slither of a mammoth tooth, yet finding an actual tooth has always been a dream of hers. 

“I was absolutely thrilled because that's the one thing on my bucket list.

"When we came down here, I said to my husband ‘I'm going to find a mammoth tooth, that is what I want to do’.  

“We were absolutely beside ourselves. Honestly, I was so happy.” 

The tooth will not be cleaned and examined by experts. 

Chris said: “I want to clean it up, preserve it, and then I've got to report it.

"Then I'll see if I can keep it or if I have to give it away.”