Bucharest (Romania): Scientists have discovered bone fragments of an ancestor elephant in a village near eastern Vaslui county in Romania.
The bones are reported to have collected from the side of a country road in Gherghesti commune, in Vaslui
The paleontologists could have unearthed a jaw bone, leg bones, pelvis fragments and nine teeth of the elephant assumed to have 7 million years old.
It is assumed that the giant creature would have five meters height and four meters length.
According to experts, it could be the ancestor of the African elephant having species name Deinotherium Giganteum – meaning the Terrible Beast.
The animal would have lived in the Moldova plateau, which spreads across northeastern Romania.
The skeleton was slightly dispersed, horizontally overlapped, as it was collected from the riverbed of a fluvial channel.
Nine well-preserved teeth were also discovered at the site, including a premolar which measured 12 cm.
A similar specimen was found more than 100 years ago in Manzati, near Vaslui county.
The skeleton is now on display at Grigore Antipa Museum in Bucharest.
Video on the fossil collected in Romania
