In 2000, a team of archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery in northern India’s Kashmir Valley – a giant fossil skull belonging to an extinct elephant species, buried alongside 87 stone tools crafted by prehistoric humans.
Almost 25 years later, an international team of scientists decided it was time to revisit the mega-herbivore fossil. Their mission? To figure out its age and its evolutionary significance.
The study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, offers a rare glimpse into a little-understood period of elephant evolutionary history.
“From the general shape of the skull, it’s quite apparent that the elephant belonged to Palaeoloxodon, or straight-tusked elephants," says Dr Steven Zhang, a palaeontologist from University of Helsinki, who explains that these extinct elephants were among the largest land mammals to ever live.
"Full-grown adults easily stood around 4m tall at the shoulder and weighed 9-10 tonnes,” says Zhang.
However, the team made a surprising discovery: the Kashmir skull lacked the distinctive forward-projecting crest seen in other Palaeoloxodon fossils from India.
“From the size, the wisdom teeth and a few other telltale features of the skull, it is evident that the animal was a majestic bull elephant in the prime of its life, but the lack of a well-developed skull crest, particularly in comparison with other mature male skulls from Europe and from India, tells us we have a different species on our hands here," Zhang explains.
Further analysis linked the Kashmir skull with an obscure fossil found in Turkmenistan during the 1950s, suggesting both belong to a newly identified species, Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus (P. turkmenicus).
“What’s always been puzzling about the Turkmen skull is that besides the lack of a prominent crest at the skull roof, its other features are highly similar to the already well-known European species, P. antiquus," says Zhang.
"And this led a number of experts to suggest that the Turkmen specimen is simply an aberrant individual of the European species."
Advait Jukar, the study’s lead author, adds that "with the Kashmir skull added to the mix, it becomes clear now that the two specimens can be theorised to represent a distinct species that we previously knew very little about, with a broad distribution from Central Asia to the northern Indian Subcontinent.”
By analysing the tooth enamel of the Kashmir Palaeoloxodon skull, and examining the stone tools buried alongside the elephant remains (evidence the animal was most likely killed by early humans), the team were able to date the fossil to the Middle Pleistocene, 300,000–400,000 years ago. This is very similar to the estimated age of the Turkmen skull, supporting the belief that the two skulls represent a species distinct from other Eurasian Palaeoloxodon.
The scientists believe P. turkmenicus may represent a key evolutionary link between the earlier African elephants and the later giants of Europe and India, shedding new light on the rise of these prehistoric mega-herbivores.
Read more about the study A remarkable Palaeoloxodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea) skull from the intermontane Kashmir Valley, India
Main image: artist's impression of an ancient elephant (not P. turkmenicus)
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