French farmer who found skull of elephant ancestor kept it quiet to avoid fossil hunters
A FARMER in the south of France stumbled across the first skull of a giant, fourtusked ancestor of the elephant but failed to inform palaeontologists for almost three years because he didn’t want any “bother” from fossil hunters.
The unnamed farmer struck scientific gold when he unearthed the remarkably intact skull – unique in the world – of the Pyrenean mastodon, Gomphotherium pyrenaicum, a relative of elephants and mammoths that roamed the area millions of years ago. The only previous proof of its existence was four teeth belonging to one individual found in 1857 in an area near the farm, around 40 miles south-west of Toulouse. Unsure what to do with the bones, he finally contacted the Toulouse natural history museum, telling them he had failed to call earlier because he did not want to be “bothered” by fossil enthusiasts.
The skull, including upper and lower tusks, is more than 5ft long and thought to be between 13 and 11 million years old – too ancient to have its DNA extracted.
The body has not been found. Mastodons only died out completely around 11,700 years ago.