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The remains fossils of three mastodons of more than 11 thousand years old They were found in the central Andean region of Junín, in Peru, researchers reported this Friday.
“The remains of three mastodons have been discovered in good condition, which They date back to the Pleistocene era.“paleontologist Iván Meza of the Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Ingemmet) told AFP.
What are the remains of 11,000-year-old mastodons like?
The singular event occurred a few weeks ago in a wild area in the Chambará district, in Junín, about 290 km east of Lima. Excavations had begun in 2019.
“It is a unique find in Peru. The place could be a megafauna site with remains of other animals from the Pleistocene,” a period that began 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago, the scholar highlighted.
Mastodons could reach three meters in height, he said.
Among the remains found They include fangs, femurs, tibias, fibulas (fibula), ribs, ulnae (ulna), teeth and other parts.
Mastodons were proboscidean mammals (with a trunk), which belong to the now extinct family of gomphotheriidae (Gomphotheriidae), extinct relatives of elephants.
Mastodons came from North America, when the Panama Isthmus finished closing, about 3 to 4 million years ago, and the Great American Biotic Exchange occurred, populating South America.
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