A woolly mammoth skeleton with 90 percent of its original bones is displayed at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2009. Workers digging on the underground network in the western German city of Duesseldorf have uncovered a 34-kilogramme (76-pound) woolly mammoth tusk over 10,000 years old, city officials said on Tuesday.

Workers digging on the underground network in the western city of Duesseldorf have uncovered a 34-kilogramme (76-pound) woolly mammoth tusk over 10,000 years old, city officials said on Tuesday.

Excavation work was stopped immediately while the 1.20-metre-long tusk was gently removed and taken away for scientific study, Duesseldorf authorities said in a statement.

The tusk was the only part of the animal found during the dig some 12 metres below the surface.

died out in the region around present-day Germany some 10,000 years ago.

(c) 2012 AFP