FORGET the latest electronic gadget or computer game – these lucky youngsters are the new owners of a pair of teeth from an Ice Age woolly mammoth.

Eight-year-olds Alexander MacGregor and Poppy Askew were each given a tooth belonging to a beast that roamed the earth more than 45,000 years ago.

The schoolchildren were given the presents in return for helping to name a woolly mammoth skeleton being auctioned today in Billingshurst.

The skeleton and tusks of the once six-tonne mammoth, now named Monty, are expected to fetch up to £250,000 at Summers Place Auctions this afternoon.

Alexander, a pupil at St Andrew’s Prep school in Eastbourne, said: “I love going to the auction house because there are always so many amazing things in there which you would never normally see. Some of them are very old, like Monty.

“Poppy and I came up with the name Monty for a number of reasons, but one of them was because it is the name of my friend’s cat. We also wanted it to begin with ‘m’ so it sounded better.”

Alexander took his new prehistoric possession into school yesterday to share with his friends and teachers.

He added: “Everybody was interested in it. It is amazing how old it is and that it is still here today. I will bring it home when I finish school later this week.”

When asked if the tooth made a change from playing with normal toys, Alexander said: “Well, I wouldn’t say no to a new game or something like that if anyone asked me. But yes I am very happy to have the tooth. I hope I can keep it until I am very old.”

Monty was previously part of an old Eastern European private collection. But the woolly mammoth, or what is left of him, will be given a new home when bidding starts this afternoon.

Natural history expert Errol Fuller, who gave the children their mammoth teeth, said: “I am pleased this sale includes so many extinct species. We have assembled some of the best examples.”