2023-10-04 18:06:00
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Although science has proven on numerous occasions that there is no specific place where pachyderms instinctively go to die, legends about elephant cemeteries They have had a certain relevance in the popular imagination over the years, whether due to the ambition of some to find large reserves of ivory, or because of the countless films that have reinforced the myth.
This is how an exceptional cemetery of marine animals was formed in Peru
Incited by false belief, many have gone out in search of these supposedly sacred enclaves, without success. But what the explorers, who always focused their gaze on the African continent, would never have imagined is that the ancient remains of ancient civilizations were hidden in the Iberian Peninsula. eight copies of Gomphotherium narrowinga distant ancestor of modern African elephants.
This has been notified by the City of Madridwho a few months ago came across the discovery when preparing land in the La Atalayuela industrial estate, located just over 10 kilometers from the Spanish capital, to build a fire logistics center. It didn’t take them long to give the green light to an excavation – led by Alessandro Giusto, paleontologist, and Jorge Morín, archaeologist – that brought to light pieces of great historical value.
What do the remains of Gomphotherium narrowing?
The investigation began in March 2023, extended until August, and covers an approximate area of 800m2. To date, the remains found have allowed experts to learn more about this species, whose presence had already been previously reported in Spainmore recently in Somosaguas and Carpetana (also in Madrid), and in Villafeliche (Zaragoza).
City of Madrid
Piece that corresponds to a rib Gomphotherium narrowing.
He Gomphotherium narrowing It is an extinct elephant that lived during the early and middle Miocene, between 16 and five million years ago. In line with the period, the skeleton discovered in La Atalayuela dates back 14 million yearsas indicated by the official announcement. The species spread over a vast territory: central and southern Europe, the Arabian Peninsula and northeastern Africa, approximately from Tunisia to Kenya.
Regarding its appearance, this prehistoric giant It did not exceed the dimensions of the current African elephantwhich is among the largest land mammals on the planet: while the latter reaches 4 meters in height and weighs around 6 tons in adulthood, its ancestor It was about 3 meters tall and weighed about 2.5 tons. Furthermore, the trunk of the Gomphotherium narrowing It was shorter than that of its modern relative.
City of Madrid
Piece that corresponds to the jaw of the Gomphotherium narrowing.
Of the remains found, it has been possible to recover, to date, jaws, tusks, femurs, humeri and complete hips corresponding to eight specimens of the species. And the first conclusions of the investigation reveal why they were in the area and how the fossils have been preserved to the present day: the land where they are located housed a pocket of water in which the animals took refuge during a period of aridity, although they later died due to lack of food. Then, a sudden rise in the water level covered the remains, facilitating their fossilization, and millions of years later they have been found by humans; species with which, by the way, it never coexisted on the European continent.
Now, although investigations continuethe pieces have been deposited in the Regional Archaeological Museum of the Community of Madrid, in Alcalá de Henares, and some of them are in the National Museum of Natural Sciences, where are being deeply studied with the aim of offering more answers about these enormous animals that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula millions of years ago.
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