Ancient elephant unearthed in Indonesia

Archaeologists have unearthed an unusually large elephant, which is about 200,000 years old, from East Java in Indonesia.

A team, led by Dr Gert van den Bergh of the University of Wollongong, has excavated the almost complete 200,000-year- old elephant skeleton from a terrace adjacent to Solo River in East Java.

According to them, it was first exposed in the walls of a sand quarry but it took almost four weeks to remove the overlying sand, excavate the bones, and encase them in plaster for transport back to Geology Museum in Bandung, West Java.

"This is a really significant find. It is one of the most complete elephant skeletons ever recovered in Indonesia, is of an extinct species and is of enormous size, much bigger than modern-day Asian elephants with the femur alone being 1.2 metres long.
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"Normally, such dead animals would have been ripped apart and eaten by carnivores. Last year, for instance, the same team found the skull of an enormous tiger in the same general area.

"But it appears that the elephant became bogged in the river shallows, perished and was quickly covered by sands about 200,000 years ago. Parts of the skeleton were still articulated when found,"

Dr van den Bergh said. When properly conserved and assembled, the skeleton will later be displayed in the museum. The find has already triggered widespread interest among the Indonesian media and general public.