Mammoth skull raised from ground

Palaeontologists working in southern France have used a crane to lift a "rare" mammoth skull out of the ground.

The 600kg fossil has lain in the earth near Saint Paulien, in the volcanic Auvergne region, for some 400,000 years, scientists estimate.

Researchers had to protect the fossil with a plaster jacket before lifting it with the crane and putting it on the back of a truck.

The species is described as a "missing link" in mammoth evolution.

continue....