An elephant skull discovered in Kashmir 24 years ago has been identified as belonging to the extinct "straight-tusked" Palaeoloxodon species, one of the largest elephant species ever to roam the Earth. Discovered in 2000 in Pampore, this skull is unique because it differs from other specimens found in India. Its features closely resemble a skull found in Turkmenistan, suggesting that it may represent a distinct species previously unknown to researchers.
Typically, elephants have curved tusks, but the straight-tusked Palaeoloxodon, which lived in Europe and Western Asia, had large tusks that lived up to its name. This species, which survived until about 21,000 years ago, was among the largest land mammals, standing around four meters tall and weighing between 9-10 tonnes. Despite its extinction, the discovery of the skull in Kashmir offers crucial insights into its evolutionary history.
The Kashmir skull was uncovered alongside 87 prehistoric stone tools, which were re-examined in 2019 by an international team of researchers, including scientists from the University of Jammu. Their goal was to study the species' taxonomy, investigate its cause of death, and assess any human involvement in its demise. The findings, published in *Quaternary Science Reviews*, revealed that the skull belonged to a Palaeoloxodon elephant, but with some key anatomical differences from other Indian Palaeoloxodon skulls.
Most notably, the Kashmir skull "thickened, forward-projecting crest at the skull roof" that is commonly found in other specimens from India. Instead, it exhibited distinct characteristics similar to a skull that was recovered in Turkmenistan during the 1950s, which had been classified as a separate species known as Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus. This Turkmen skull shared several anatomical features with the European species Palaeoloxodon antiquus, which is also known for its impressive size. However, it was once regarded as an outlier in the classification due to its absence of a prominent crest. The unique features of the Kashmir skull highlight the possibility of greater variation within the Palaeoloxodon lineage than previously understood, indicating a more complex evolutionary narrative for straight-tusked elephants across different regions.
The Kashmir skull supports the idea that both it and the Turkmen specimen belong to a previously unknown species of straight-tusked elephants that may have lived from Central Asia to northern India. Analysis of protein from the skull’s tooth indicates it is from the Middle Pleistocene, about 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, which strengthens its link to the Turkmen skull. Researchers now think these two skulls could belong to a distinct species, enhancing our understanding of the evolutionary history of straight-tusked elephants in Eurasia.
(This article is the reworked version of a PTI feed)
