Elephantine discovery throws light on ancient world

Dubai: A string of huge elephant bones have been excavated from a site west of Abu Dhabi city, generating interest from experts across the globe.

The three large bones, plus lots of fragments, date from the late Miocene period, six to eight million years ago.

The elephants they came from, which have the scientific name Stegotetrabelodon syrticus, were one third bigger than today's African elephants and had tusks on both their upper and lower jaws.

Following their discovery in November, a team of palaeontologists has recently completed digging them up from Bida Al Mutawa, in Abu Dhabi's western region.

Peter Hellyer, Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, which carried out the excavations, said one of the bones was a pelvis, the first of its kind found from these elephants.

"We found tusks and whole skulls from these elephants many years ago but these finds are important because the pelvis helps us to work out the precise structure of these animals," he said.

Hellyer said the find was doubly important because it extended inland in the region where fossils had been found, and so could lead to further discoveries.

Fossil tree roots

As well as the pelvis, the excavation team also removed a femur, the upper back leg bone, and a radius, a lower front leg bone, plus fragments of other bones. Also included in the find were fossil tree roots up to 10 metres long.

"The big femur bone weighed several hundred kilogrammes when it was wrapped in plaster so it could be moved," he said.

The excavation team at the site 200km west of Abu Dhabi city and 30km inland included Dr John Stewart, a palaeontologist from University College, London.

In late April two UK specialists in the conservation of fossil bones will arrive to work on the bones that were dug up, which have been brought back to Abu Dhabi.