400,000 years ago, early humans in Europe, Asia and Africa lived alongside giant straight-tusked elephants, far bigger than their modern-day cousins. Their evolution has long been a mystery to palaeontologists, but an extraordinary, enormous and near-complete skull is helping us uncover an obscure episode in the evolutionary history of these prehistoric megaherbivores.
This remarkable specimen was excavated, alongside 87 prehistoric stone tools, in northern India’s Kashmir Valley in late 2000 by team of geologists that included Drs. AM Dar and MS Lone of Government Degree College in Sopore, Dr. Ghulam Bhat of Jammu University, and veterinarian Dr. MS Shalla.
Though fascinating, the find raised more questions than it answered: What kind of elephant died there? And did this giant meet its end at the hands of early humans?
