Mastodon fossil remains discovered in Taichung

They also noted that the discovery marks the first time that local archaeologists have found proof that Taiwan was once home to the prehistoric elephant species, which is estimated to have existed from about 28 million years ago to 10,000 years ago.

Mastodon fossils have been unearthed in the past in various areas in the Northern Hemisphere, including in northern China, Europe, and North America. However, they had never been found in Southeast Asia before the recent discovery in Taichung County, which makes the discovery especially remarkable, according to the university.

The fossil teeth discovered have been verified as having belonged to a young calf that lived in the neighboring areas sometime between 1.5 million and 1.8 million years ago.

Archaeologists at the university had previously discovered fossils of mammuthus — also a species of prehistoric elephant — in the adjacent areas, proving for the first time that this species existed in central Taiwan between 1.6 million and 2.2 million years ago.

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