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One of the best preserved skeletons of a woolly mammoth, complete with 8ft (2.4 metres) tusks, is going up for auction.

The 50,000-year-old mammoth, named Monty, is expected to spark a fierce bidding war on Saturday, with some experts suggesting it will sell for £250,000 ($409,000).

The specimen, which is an incredible 11.4ft (3.5 metres) high and 18ft (5.5 metres) long, could attract bidders from both museums and private collectors.

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Meet Monty: The 50,000-year-old mammoth is expected to spark a fierce bidding war on Saturday, with some experts suggesting it will sell for £250,000 ($409,000)

Monty was found after spending around 100,000 years under the ice in Siberia, and now Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex, is hoping to find a suitable collector.

'This is a virtually complete mammoth skeleton with beautiful tusks, which makes it particularly rare,' said curator Errol Fuller.

'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.

'Its habitat was the mammoth steppe, stretching across northern Eurasia and North America, so its diet was mainly grass and sedges, which explains why it only had four molar teeth, and also stunning long, curved tusks.' 

Rare find: Monty is one the best preserved skeletons of a woolly mammoth and still has his huge tusks

Bidding war: The specimen, which is an incredible 11.4ft (3.5 metres) high and 18ft (5.5 metres) long, is expected to attract bidders from both museums and private collectors

Alistair Morris and Linsay Hoadley from Summers Place give the enormous mammoth a final dusting.  Anyone with with enough room to house this skeleton can bid for it at Summers Place in West Sussex

Rare, well-preserved woolly mammoth goes on sale

The woolly mammoth is thought to be a male who would have weighed over six tonnes when it roamed Earth.

James Rylands, of Summers Place Auctions, said: 'What's exceptional about this one is it's more or less complete with two magnificent tusks. There are one or two toes missing.

'It looks very impressive, the inside curve of the tusks is about 8ft (2.4 metres). It's bigger than an elephant.' 

The woolly mammoth co-existed with early humans, who hunted them for food and used their bones and tusks for making art.

COULD WOOLLY MAMMOTHS BE CLONED AND BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE? 

Back from the dead? Scientists hope to bring woolly mammoths back from extinction

Woolly mammoths could be brought back from extinction after a preserved body of one of the ancient animals was found frozen in the snowy wastes of Siberia, scientists hope.

The mammoth, which took its last steps around 40,000 years ago, is in such good condition that biologists believe they may be able to clone the creature.

An autopsy of the Ice Age beast, which has been nicknamed Buttercup by scientists, will be shown in a documentary later this month.

The Channel 4 programme will also examine pioneering work on cloning the woolly mammoth, which is taking place in South Korea and the US.

Scientists hope that, eventually, they will be able to reintroduce the huge creatures back into the wild, tens of thousands of years after they became extinct.

Insung Hwang, a South Korean geneticist, told the Independent: 'Bringing back the mammoth either through cloning or genetic engineering would be an extremely long process. We're trying hard to make this possible within our generation.'

That's why we have to start discussing the implications now. Some of our colleagues are still working on analysing the genome from Buttercup's specimen. This is a long and complicated process that is unlikely to be finished anytime in the near future.' 

Mammoth sale: Rupert van Der Werff, director of Summers Place Auctions that is selling the mammoth, says the Ice Age remains could fetch up to £250,000 ($409,000)

Up until now, the mammoth has been part of an old Eastern European private collection. Due to its huge size, it has only been pieced together recently.

'To the best of my knowledge, I don't think there has been one sold at auction, certainly not in the UK and I don't think in Europe, so it's a first in that respect,' said Mr Rylands. 

'It could either go to a museum or if you have a big conservatory it would definitely make a serious statement.

'It's not like a number 14 bus, there isn't going to be another one coming along.' 

Also up for auction is a stuffed polar bear (left), which is expected to sell for up to £30,000 ($47,000) and the the world's largest ever egg (right) from the Elephant Bird, which is expected to sell for £50,000 ($78,500)

A skeleton of a moa, a massive flightless bird, is also going under the hammer during the Saturday afternoon sale, with a guide price of around £100,000 ($157,100) 

Up until now, Monty the mammoth has been part of an old Eastern European private collection. Due to its huge size, it has only been pieced together recently

The mammoth will be sold at Summer Place Auctions' 'Evolution' sale on Saturday in Billingshurst, West Sussex.

Last year a diplodocus skeleton sold at auction for more than £400,000 ($654,000).

A skeleton of a moa, a massive flightless bird, is also going under the hammer during the afternoon sale, with a guide price of around £100,000 ($157,100).

Also up for sale is the world's largest ever egg - from the extinct Elephant Bird, which is expected to sell for £50,000 ($78,500).

The Elephant Bird, which roamed Madagascar up until about 500 years ago, laid eggs which measured 11.8 inches (30cm) long.

Pictured on the left are a number of the auction house's creatures up for sale. The turtle is estimated to fetch £800 ($1250). Boxing chimpanzees on the right could sell for up to £1800 ($2,823)

Cased half mount tiger by Rowland Ward Estimated to sell for £10,000 ($15,700) at the auction on Saturday

Pictured on the left is a rare cave bear skeleton dating from the Pleistocene, a geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago. On the right is a stuffed rabbit also up for sale