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Remains of extinct elephant discovered in Greece

— Photo: AP

RARE FIND: Two large tusks and bone remains of a mastodon seen in an excavated sandpit at the village of Milia Greece.

Athens: Greek palaeontologists have discovered the tusks and fossilised remains of a 3-million-year-old mastodon, or extinct elephant, in northern Greece, reports have said. The tusks of the mammal weigh a tonne each and are 5 metres in length, the longest ever found, according to a report published in the Greek daily Kathimerini. Experts believe the mammal to have been a male aged around 25, measuring 3.5 metres tall and weighing over 6 tonnes.

The petrified remains of the mastodon were found near the village of Milia, 430 km north of Athens, in an area where excavations have uncovered the remains of several prehistoric animals over the past decade.

The research team said it was the largest tusk ever found from the primitive ancestor of the elephant.

Mastodons were similar to woolly mammoths but had straighter tusks as well as different teeth and eating habits.

They roamed Europe, Asia and North America, but how they became extinct remains a mystery. Mastodons are thought to have disappeared in Europe and Asia some 2 million years ago but survived in North America until 10,000 years ago.

Researchers said the find at Milia could yield clues about the mastodon’s extinction. — DPA, AP

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