Naumann's Elephant May Have Gone Extinct 10,000 Yrs Earlier than Thought

Tokyo, May 26 (Jiji Press)--Naumann's elephant in the Japanese archipelago went extinct about 10,000 years earlier than previously believed, with climate change highly likely playing a significant role, a Japanese research team has said.

The findings by the team were published in British journal Scientific Reports on Tuesday. The team comprised researchers from Tokai University, Tokyo Metropolitan University, the University of Tokyo and the Museum of Natural and Environmental History.

Up until now, the widely accepted theory was that Naumann's elephant, or Palaeoloxodon naumanni, disappeared from the Japanese archipelago about 24,000 years ago.

To determine the exact timing of the extinction, the team removed impurities from Naumann's elephant fossils discovered in the Seto Inland Sea off the city of Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, and conducted high-precision radiocarbon dating.

After dating fossils found in other parts of the country as well, the researchers deduced that the animal went extinct about 33,000 to 35,000 years ago.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]