Elephant Ancestor Might have Lived Longer Than Previously Thought

Archaeologists have discovered remains of an ancient ancestor of the present-day elephant, along with artifacts of the prehistoric Clovis culture, suggesting that the mammoths roamed the continent longer than previously thought.

Researchers at the University of Arizona were alerted by ranchers who informed them of the bones they found in northwestern Sonora, Mexico, The team then began excavating for the skeletal remains of two juvenile gomphotheres in 2007. But, they were initially clueless of the animal they were studying.

Gomphotheres, the ancient creatures were smaller than mammoths, similar to the size of the modern elephants. They dominated the regions in North America, but till date it was assumed that they disappeared from the continent much before the early humans entered North America - some 13,000 -13,500 years ago, during the late Ice Age.

In 2008, they found a fossilized jawbone with teeth at the same site which they dubbed El Fin del Mundo, which means The End of the World in Spanish. The bones dated back approximately 13,400 years making them the last known elephant ancestors in North America. This is based on the radiocarbon dating done at the site.

"This is the first archaeological gomphothere found in North America, and it's the only one known," said Holliday, a professor of anthropology and geology at the UA.

As the digging continued, they also uncovered several Clovis artifacts that included signature Clovis projectile points, spear tips, as well as cutting tolls and flint flakes from stone making tool that dated back to some 13,400 years, making it one of the two oldest archaeological sites in North America. The Clovis culture is known for its distinctive stone tool.

The artifacts were found mingled with bones of two gomphotheres suggesting the animal roamed the continent much longer and did not disappear from North America before the arrival of humans. The Clovis group may have hunted and ate gomphotheres. The members of these cultures were good hunters of mammoths and mastodons, the cousins of gomphotheres.

"Although humans were known to have hunted gomphotheres in Central America and South America, this is the first time a human-gomphothere connection has been made in North America," said archaeologist Vance Holliday, who co-authored a new paper on the findings.

"This is the first Clovis gomphothere, it's the first archaeological gomphothere found in North America, it's the first evidence that people were hunting gomphotheres in North America, and it adds another item to the Clovis menu," Holliday said.

The finding was documented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.