THE skeleton of an Ice Age woolly mammoth believed to be more than 50,000 years old has sold at auction for nearly £200,000.

Nicknamed Monty, the 18ft-long mammoth fetched £150,000 under the hammer at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst yesterday.

It was sold to a UK-based private collector in a telephone bid. The buyer’s premium brought the total cost to £189,000.

At 11.6ft tall, the near-complete skeleton of more than 150 bones came complete with curved tusks.

Experts believe Monty was a male mammoth that would have weighed up to six tonnes.

Errol Fuller, curator of the Second Evolution sale, said the mammoth skeleton had been disassembled for decades but was specially mounted in position for auction.

He said the mammal’s heavy skull took four people to lift and fix on to the body.

The last of the woolly mammoths died out about 10,000 years ago. A Summers Place spokesman said: “Imagine the mammoth covered in fur – long fur on top with a shorter undercoat – and although quite similar to today’s elephant, it had smaller ears and a shorter tail to minimise frostbite and heat loss, so it was well-adapted for the Ice Age.

He added: “The mammoth co-existed with early humans, who hunted them for food and used its bones and tusks for making art, which also explains why complete skeletons are so rare.”

The egg of an elephant bird, which inhabited Madagascar until 500 years ago and looked like a giant ostrich, sold to a Chinese bidder for £70,000.