Reported by ScienceDaily
A single ancient elephant tooth is offering scientists a remarkable glimpse into a world that existed nearly 700,000 years ago. Found in northern Israel, the fossil has helped researchers reconstruct a surprisingly lush prehistoric landscape filled with forests, rivers, wetlands, and abundant vegetation. This ancient environment supported enormous elephants and some of the region's earliest human populations, revealing how access to water and natural resources may have helped our ancestors survive and move between continents.
The discovery comes from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY-NBA), an archaeological site where early humans produced stone tools hundreds of thousands of years ago. Elephant remains were unearthed alongside handaxes and cleavers made from basalt, a volcanic rock. These implements belong to the Acheulian tradition, one of the oldest and most widespread stone tool technologies in human history.
The research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews , was led by Hannah Farrell (a PhD candidate at Haifa University). The team examined a large elephant molar and fragments of tusk recovered from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (Daughters of Jacob Bridge), situated in the Jordan Rift Valley just south of today's Hula Valley. The site was excavated by Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee and his colleagues.
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The fossils belonged to Palaeoloxodon antiquus , commonly known as the straight-tusked elephant. This enormous prehistoric animal was among the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene, the geological period that included the most recent ice ages.
Rather than focusing only on the animal itself, the scientists treated its tooth as a record of the world in which it lived. Teeth can preserve chemical clues about an animal's diet and surroundings, allowing researchers to investigate environmental conditions from hundreds of thousands of years ago.
To uncover those clues, the team combined several scientific techniques, including CT scans, 3D reconstruction, microscopic examination of tooth wear, isotope geochemistry, and pollen analysis. CT imaging allowed them to examine the fossil's internal structure, while chemical measurements and microscopic evidence helped build a picture of the ancient habitat.
The results pointed to a remarkably persistent landscape containing woodlands, open grasslands, marshes, flowing rivers,…