Paleontologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History have discovered a cemetery of ancient relatives of modern elephants in northern Florida. This unexpected discovery proves that, in ancient times, the ancestors of modern elephants inhabited virtually every continent. Here’s what we know about the ancient elephants of North America:
1. The discovery of an ancient elephant cemetery
Paleontologists excavated at Montbrook, in northern Florida, where they found the partially preserved fossilized remains of gomphoters, extinct relatives of elephants. These animals died about five and a half million years ago, in or near a river. As a result, a real cemetery of these animals was formed. And scientists have found that they did not die all at once. The difference in time of death in some cases is hundreds of years. Nevertheless, the dead prehistoric giants were buried in the same place, next to other animals that suffered the same fate.
2. Bones of other extinct animals
Not only bones of ancient elephants have been found in Montbrook, but also bones of other extinct animals, including the oldest deer and the oldest saber-toothed cat found in North America. So far, scientists have found the bones of one adult and seven young homopterans. In the adult, the skull together with the tusks was about two meters long.
3. Identification of ancient elephants
Experts say that identifying these animals is always difficult. It is done by their tusks, which have a unique shape, orientation and pattern of stripes.
4. The path of ancient elephants to North America
Homopterans first appeared in Africa during the early Miocene, about 23 million years ago, after which they dispersed into Europe and Asia. About 16 million years ago, they reached North America by crossing the Bering Bridge, an isthmus that existed at the time. And about 2.7 million years ago, prehistoric elephant ancestors made their way to South America via the Isthmus of Panama, which rose above the sea.
5. Unique features of ancient elephants
It is believed that over the course of their very long journey, homopterans developed several unique characteristics that allowed them to thrive in the new environments they encountered. And their species differed markedly from one another. For example, some of these creatures had not one but two sets of tusks. In addition to the usual pair of upper tusks characteristic of proboscides, they had a second set attached to the lower jaw. In addition, the tusks of Platybelodon gomphotheres were flattened and connected, resembling a massive pair of deer teeth. They used them to scrape the bark off trees.
The discovery of a cemetery of ancient elephants in north Florida is an important discovery in the history of paleontology. It proves that ancient elephants lived not only in Africa but also on other continents, including North America. This opens up new possibilities for studying the evolution of elephants and their relatives in different parts of the world.