Stone Age elephant remains found

[Trevor Proffitt]

Stone Age elephant remains found


The skeleton was found at the site a new station
Construction work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) in Kent has unearthed the 400,000-year-old remains of an elephant.
The skeleton was found on the site of the new Ebbsfleet station, an area thought to be an early Stone Age site.

Bones from other large animals, including rhinoceros, buffalo and wild horses, have also been found nearby.

The remains were preserved in muddy sediment near what was once the edge of a small lake, a spokesman said.


The elephant, which has been identified as a straight-tusked Palaeoloxodon antiquus, would have been twice the size of the largest modern African elephant.

The skeleton was also found with a number of flint tools surrounding it, indicating that it was probably slaughtered by humans.

Flint tools

Dr Francis Wenban-Smith of the University of Southampton, who made the discovery, said: "Only a handful of other elephant remains have been found in Britain and none of these give any indication of human exploitation.

"It is hard to imagine early humans successfully hunting a healthy specimen, but if it was already trapped in the bog, it could have been killed by early humans with wooden spears and then butchered for its meat with flint tools."

We thought we had found everything but it seems the best has been saved for last

Helen Glass


The archaeological investigation is being carried out by Oxford Archaeology, on behalf of CTRL project managers Rail Link Engineering (RLE) and its client Union Railways.

Helen Glass of RLE said: "During pre-construction investigations across the Ebbsfleet Valley we found an Anglo-Saxon mill, as well as the remains of a Roman town and villa complex.

"We thought we had found everything, but it seems the best has been saved for last."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3821527.stm
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[Trevor Proffitt]

Mammoth remains unearthed at California construction site
Ice Age reminder in sunny California
Friday, April 8, 2005 Posted: 9:24 AM EDT (1324 GMT)


MOORPARK, California (AP) -- The remarkably well-preserved remnants of an estimated half-million-year-old mammoth -- including both tusks -- were discovered at a new housing development in Southern California.

An onsite paleontologist found the remains, which include 50 percent to 70 percent of the Ice Age creature, as crews cleared away hillsides to prepare for building, Mayor Pro Tem Clint Harper said.

Paleontologist Mark Roeder estimated the mammoth was about 12 feet tall, Harper said. Roeder believed it was not a pygmy or imperial mammoth, but he had not yet determined its exact type, Harper said.

"It's considered a very significant find, and it's a very complete fossil. It's unusual because it was found all the way down near the bedrock," Harper said. "We asked if carbon dating could be used and they said no way, it's too old."

Harper said the first bones were spotted several days ago and a special crew was called in after Roeder found more remnants, including the 6- and 7-foot-long tusks.

"They've been encased in plaster and burlap and removed from the site," Harper said.

Moorpark in Ventura County is about 30 miles west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

"The Moorpark mammoth, that's what we'll call it," Harper said.

Other Ice Age creatures have been found in recent years around Southern California, including a mastodon in Simi Valley, a mammoth in Oceanside and a pygmy mammoth on the Channel Islands.
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