For the first time, scientists from the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and the Senckenberg Research Station for Quaternary Palaeontology Weimar conducted a detailed comparison of the mechanical properties of mammoth ivory from the Siberian permafrost soils and the ivory from modern African elephants. In their study, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, the team of scientists shows that, due to its exceptional material properties, the mammoth ivory was ideally suited for the manufacture of Ice Age hunting weapons – a fact that was also taken advantage of by big game hunters during the Paleolithic in Central Europe.