"Elephant cemetery" almost 6 million years old discovered in the US (photo)

Paleontologists from the Florida Museum of Natural History have unearthed a cemetery of ancient relatives of modern elephants that originated in Africa and made a long journey to North America.

Phys.org reports on the discovery. It is noted that palaeontologists conducted excavations in Monbrook, in the north of Florida. Here, they found the fossilised remains of gomphotheres, extinct relatives of elephants that have partially survived. These animals died about five and a half million years ago, in or near a river.

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As a result, a real cemetery of these animals was formed. Moreover, scientists have found that they did not die at the same time. The difference in time of death in some cases is hundreds of years. Nevertheless, the dead prehistoric creatures were buried in the same place, alongside other animals that suffered the same fate.

By the way, the bones of not only ancient elephants, but also other extinct animals, including the oldest deer and the oldest saber-toothed cat found in North America, were found in Montbrook. So far, the scientists have found the bones of one adult and seven juvenile gomphoters. In an adult, the length of the skull with tusks was about two metres.

Earlier, scientists from India recorded the first hybrids between a grey wolf and a dog in the country.

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