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by NINIEK KARMINI, Associated Press Writer
Niniek Karmini, Associated Press
Writer – Tue Jun 23, 6.15 am ET
BANDUNG, Indonesia – Indonesian scientists are reconstructing
the largest, most complete skeleton of a prehistoric giant elephant
ever found in the tropics, a finding that may offer new clues into
the largely mysterious origins of its modern Asian cousin.
The prehistoric elephant is believed to have been submerged in
quicksand shortly after dying on a riverbed in Java around 200,000
years ago. Its bones — almost perfectly preserved — were discovered
by chance in March when an old sand quarry collapsed during monsoon
rains.
The animal stood four meters (13-feet) tall, five meters
(16-feet) long and weighed more than 10 tons — closer in size to
the woolly mammoth of the same period than to the great Asian
mammals now on Earth.
Animal fossils are rare in the humid, hot climate of the equator
because decomposition occurs extremely quickly.
Following a monthlong excavation, a team of seven
paleontologists from the Geology Museum in Bandung, West Java, set
the bones in plaster for the trip back to their office where they
will be laboriously pieced back together.
"We believe from the shape of its teeth that it was a very
primitive elephant," but little else has been verified, said
paleontologist Fachroel Aziz, who is heading a 12-strong skeletal
reconstruction team.
Scientists agree it is the first time an entire prehistoric
elephant skeleton has been unearthed since vertebrate fossil
findings began to be recorded in Indonesia in 1863.
"It is very uncommon to discover a fossil like this in a
tropical region like Indonesia," said Edi Sunardi, an independent
expert at Indonesia's Pajajaran University in Bandung, West Java.
"It apparently was covered by volcanic sediment that protected it
from high temperatures, erosion and decay."
The next challenge will be removing the delicate bones from
their molds and joining them into a stable, upright structure, a
process that experts said is already being hampered by a lack of
funding, inadequate tools and poor expertise.
Indonesia, an emerging and impoverished democracy of 235 million
people, cannot afford to allocate more than a token sum to its
aging museums, even for projects that have the potential to advance
knowledge about the origin of key native species.
Gert van den Berg, a researcher at Australia's Wollongong
University who helped dig up the skeleton, said tests are under way
to determine its precise age and species, and that they will help
provide details "about when the modern elephants evolved into what
they are now."
About 2,000 old elephant remains have been found across the
island nation over the past 150 years, but never in such good
condition, Aziz said.
"We want to exhibit it publicly because this is a spectacular
discovery," he said.
