Myfanwy the mammoth roamed Anglesey 15,000 years ago

These are the bones of a woolly mammoth with the nickname Myfanwy.

They were originally found in 1864, donated to the Natural History Museum and have been on display at the Holyhead Maritime museum since 2006.

But for the first time, scientists have used a technique called radiocarbon dating to find out how old the bones are.

The results show the animal was about 32 years old when it died and that it roamed Anglesey nearly 15,000 years ago.

It's thought Myfanwy is one of the oldest known mammoths to have re-populated Britain towards the end of the last Ice Age.

Scientists say a small group of mammoths re-populated Britain after the coldest point of the Ice Age around 20,000 years ago.

Dr Neil Adams, curator of fossil mammals at the Natural History Museum told BBC Wales: "Myfanwy is not only the first of these from Wales but also looks to be the oldest of this group, indicating Myfanwy provides the new best estimate for the re-population of Britain by woolly mammoths."

The findings also give scientists an idea of what Anglesey looked like back then.

The huge ice sheet that once covered the island would have to have melted with grassland growing for woolly mammoths to be able to live there.

And Myfanwy's teeth show she was eating mainly moist grasses and plants that grow on open, treeless land known as steppe.

Material extracted from the bones have been sent for DNA testing to look at any genetic links with other mammoth populations from around the world.

Despite Myfanwy being a female name, scientists haven't worked out what sex the mammoth was yet.

Barry Hillier, a trustee of the museum, said: "We christened it Myfanwy just to give us a Welsh name and we've adopted it as a female mammoth

"We may have to look for another name. It may be a male. But that's to come."