A prehistoric Siberian mammoth fetched 312,000 euros (£212,000) at a dinosaur auction in Paris today, but despite intense interest from bidders the sale was derided by scientists for dragging natural history into the gutter of commerce.

The 15,000-year-old, 4.8m (16ft) mammoth nicknamed “President”, after Boris Yeltsin, the former Russian head of state, was the centrepiece of the groundbreaking event organised by Christie’s.

Bought by a private European collector, it was among a host of palaeontological “curiosities” sold, to the horror of French scientists.

The dinosaur sale generated total income of 1.13 million euros, prompting auctioneers to talk of repeating the initiative.

Other star items included the skeleton of a 10,000-year-old rhinoceros, which fetched 120,00 euros; an ice-age cave bear, which went for 46,800 euros; an un-hatched dinosaur egg, for 1,800 euros and two dinosaur teeth, which fetched 600 and 1,440 euros.

Christie’s also auctioned a bezoar, a type of stone found in the intestines of ruminant animals which was once thought to be a cure for depression and an antidote to poison.

These were highly prized in 17th-century England, where a lawsuit over an allegedly fake bezoar gave rise to the doctrine of caveat emptor, which holds that purchasers are responsible for checking the quality the goods they buy.

Christie’s bezoar sold for 33,600 euros.

If the mammoth attracted media attention, palaeontologists said they were just as fascinated by the sale of the 40 bird, fish, bat and frog fossils from the renowned private collection of a retired French vet, Jean Bouhanna.

“Ever since I found my first fossil at the foot of the cliffs in Normandy, I’ve always had a passionate interest in these natural marvels,’ Mr Bouhanna said.

He said that he had decided to sell his fossils, which fetched 285,192 euros, “for the benefit of my children”.

A spokeswoman for Christie’s said: “This auction was more successful than we had imagined. The auction room was full, there were a lot of bids through the internet and the atmosphere was crazy. This might be the start of a new discipline at Christies.” However, the sale drew criticism in France, where there is scant precedent for the marketing of dinosaurs.

Eric Buffetaut, a palaeontologist with the French National Centre for Scientific Research, said: “The scientific interest in a fossil is not the same thing as its aesthetic character.

“The collector looks above all for a beautiful fossil. The scientist wants exact knowledge. The merchant mixes one with the other.”

Christian de Muizon, head of the department of the history of the Earth at the Natural History Museum in Paris, said auctions could drive up prices to levels beyond the reach of museum curators.

But he added: “You can’t fight against a market that makes money. That’s the way society is.” There was also debate over the origin of the dinosaurs after the French magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur, said the mammoth, rhinoceros and cave bear had been on sale in Russia before arriving in Paris.

Mr de Muizon said: “When a specimen is sold as an art object, we don’t necessarily have all the precise details of its origin. If it has been restored, we cannot be sure that all the bits come from the same animal.”

But supporters of the sale brushed aside the criticism, saying dinosaur auctions were commonplace in the US and stimulated interest in the hunt for remains.

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