Woolly mammoth skeleton sold for $645000 at French auction

Paris : 10,000 years old woolly mammoth skeleton, the most intact one till date, has been sold for a mammoth price of about $645,000 at a French auction.

It is the largest of its kind in private hands and has more than 80% original bones in the structure. The rest is resin used to complete the assembly.

The ancient set of bones was discovered in Siberia about 10 years ago by a professional hunter and has an estimated value of $530,000, said France-based auctioneer Claude Aguttes.

With signs of decay in teeths, the scientists believe that it may have been a factor in its death if it was unable to graze.

Melting permafrost has led to an increasing number of mammoths being discovered, David Gelsthorpe, curator of Earth Science collections at Manchester Museum, told the BBC.

"The permafrost in Siberia particularly is melting at a very rapid rate because of climate change," he said.

"So not only are we getting these incredible skeletons coming out, but also pretty much as they died as well. We're getting things like fur, the skin, the muscles, the organs - and even the last meal."

Woolly mammoth belong to the early age of human being, with many of them dying around 10,000 years ago.

The last surviving group lived on an island in the Arctic Ocean and survived until 4,000 years ago.

Human hunting and climate change are considered as prime reasons behind their extinction from the Earth.