
Groundbreaking discovery: 400,000-year-old elephant fossil reveals mysterious secrets of Kashmir’s ancient history
A significant discovery of ancient elephant fossils in the Galendar area of Pampore in Kashmir Valley has unveiled the earliest known instance of butchery in the region.
These fossils, estimated to be between 300,000 and 400,000 years old, were first unearthed in 2000 and belong to the extinct species Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus, an extinct species of large elephant from the late Pleistocene, known primarily from fossils found in Turkmenistan.
They were found alongside 87 stone tools used by early humans.
The research, led by Advait Jukar from the Florida Museum of Natural History, indicates that these tools, made from basalt and shaped on-site, were likely employed to extract nutrient-rich marrow from the elephant bones.
While no direct evidence of hunting, such as embedded spea...