GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA—According to an IFL Science report, a new study of fossils of the giant elephant Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus discovered in 2000 in northern India’s Kashmir Valley suggests that hominins extracted marrow from the bones between 300,000 and 400,000 years ago. Advait Jukar of the Florida Museum of Natural History explained that he and his colleagues identified a bone flake formed by repeated hammering with stone implements, presumably some of the 87 stone tools discovered alongside the bones. “Initially, the bone was struck several times in an attempt to initiate the fracture,” Jukar said. “However, these initial attempts failed, requiring a subsequent, more forceful blow, possibly with a heavier hammerstone, to fully fracture the bone. The overall morphology of this flake closely resembles an impact flake produced in [previous] marrow processing experiments,” he explained. The tools found at the site, he added, were made of basalt, which is not found in the area. The unidentified hominins may have brought the basalt from another location, but it is not clear if they came to the site to hunt elephants or to scavenge one that had already died. “Now we know for sure, at least in the Kashmir Valley, these hominins are eating elephants,” Jukar concluded. To read about the butchered remains of a Palaeoloxodon antiquus uncovered in Greece, go to “Around the World: Greece.”
