Kostolac mammoth cemetery
A so-called mammoth cemetery was found by archaeologists in 2009 near Kostolac , about 70 kilometers east of Belgrade in Serbia in a coal mine. The accumulation of mammoth bones from several animals suggests that thousands of years ago animals came to this place to die. Observations of aging elephants also led to the assumption that they would go to a collective dying place before they died. Most scientists assume, however, that the pachyderms have no idea of a communal cemetery. As similar sites (e.g. the elephant cemetery of Palaeoloxodon antiquus near Rome ) prove, this idea is a myth.
Bones of at least seven mammoths have been discovered in the Serbian coal mine. The remains of a mammoth cow that perished about a million years ago were found in Kostolac. In the meantime, bones of six other pachyderms from around 100,000 years ago, which belonged to a different species of mammoth, have been discovered near the site.
Comparable finds
In 2013, researchers discovered the remains of mammoths near Nalchik in the Terski district in the Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. They come from the so-called southern elephant ( Mammuthus meridionalis ), a species of mammoth that came to Eurasia from Africa about two million years ago. So far, seven relatively complete skeletons of this type have been found - three in Russia, two in Italy and one each in France (Elephant von Durfort) and Serbia.
literature
- Giovanni Muttoni; Giancarlo Scardia; Vesna Dimitrijevic; Dennis V. Kent; Edoardo Monesi; Nemanja Mrdjić; Miomir Korać: Age of Mammuthus trogontherii from Kostolac, Serbia, and the entry of megaherbivores into Europe during the Late Matuyama climate revolution
Individual evidence
- ↑ The star: Pleistocene - elephant cemetery near Rome .
- ^ Radio Voice of Russia: Mammoth remains found in Kabardino-Balkaria .