A child in Austria has found an elephant tusk that is about 130,000 years old.
The tusks, more than 1.8 meters long, came to the surface thanks to excavation work that had begun in Mattersburg. The authorities decided to build a reservoir to defend against floods near the Vulka River. The fangs were spotted by eight-year-old Henri Pingitzer, who was cycling through the area.
Until now, nothing similar has been found in Burgenland, a land in eastern Austria, although it was known that a forest elephant lived in Europe thousands of years ago, which was even older than the mammoth, reports Noi.md with reference to .
The animal was about 4 m tall and weighed 10 tons. His contemporaries were Neanderthals, for whom elephant meat was a valuable source of food.
Ancient elephant remains are very rare to find, which is why the mayor of Mattersburg, Claudia Schlager, was delighted to learn of young Henri’s discovery and called the tusks “a unique testimony to the region’s prehistory”. It is now to be exhibited in the museum in the city.
