New Delhi, January 30: A team led by Pakistani scientists has discovered a three-million-year-old tusk, the longest in South Asia, which could provide clues about the evolution of elephants in the region.
The eight feet 11 inch long tusk of Anancus sivalensis, a distant cousin of the present day elephants, was found in Tatrot village in the Upper Siwaliks region of northern Pakistan.
The tusk is believed to be between 3.4 to 2.6 million years old, the scientists, led by Muhammad Akbar Khan of the Government College University, Faislabad said reporting their findings in leading Indian journal ”Current Science”.
“Such a long tusk is hitherto unknown from the Siwalik sediments, and also is the longest tust found to date in South Asia,” they said.
Anancus sivalensis belonged to order proboscidea that originated in Africa but spread all over the world and represented a diverse group of mammals. Currently, the order contains one living family — elephantidae which has three living species — the African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant, and Asian Elephant.
The giant animals with tusks in the range of 9 feet roamed in Asia minor and northern Pakistan millions of years ago.
The tusk was discovered in 2004 by a team of palaeontologists from Punjab University in Lahore and the University of Crete in Greece that went on a routine winter excavation field trip from Tatrot village to Kakrala village, close to the Jhelum river.
It took the scientist almost six years to analyse the tusk which they had found buried horizontally in stone.
The tusk is now housed in the Abu Bakr Fossil Display and Research Centre of the Zoology Department, Punjab University, Lahore.
Species belonging to the anancus genus, believed to be at least 10 feet tall and closely resembling the modern elephant, appeared to live by eating from trees and shrubs and digging out tubers and roots.
The genus is believed to have become extinct following environmental changes which resulted in forests making way for grasslands.
During the late Pliocene, approximately 3.4 to 2.6 million years ago, the Anancus sivalensis is believed to have co-existed with elephants in the Indo-Siwalik region.
——-PTI