Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus is an extinct species of elephant belonging to the genus Palaeoloxodon. It was described in 1955 based on a partial adult skull (ZIN 27052) found in Khuday-Dag near Krasnovodsk in what is now western Turkmenistan (then the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union) in Central Asia, dating to the early Middle Pleistocene.[1][2] Its validity was historically considered uncertain, with a 2004 study suggesting that it was a synonym of the largely European straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus).[2] In 2024, a second skull was attributed to the species from Galander near Pampore in the Kashmir Valley located in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent (probably also of Middle Pleistocene age). In contrast to most other Eurasian species of Palaeoloxodon (such as the European Palaeoloxodon antiquus and the South Asian Palaeoloxodon namadicus) the parietal-occipital crest in the forehead region of the skull is only weakly developed, similar to the African Palaeoloxodon recki, with the anatomy of the stylohyoid bone found at Pampore strongly also differing from that of P. recki, P. antiquus and P. namadicus (as well as the Japanese P. naumanni), supporting its placement as a distinct species. The 2024 study proposed that Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus may represent the ancestor of other Eurasian Palaeoloxodon species, but noted that given the current paucity of skull remains of early Middle Pleistocene Palaeoloxodon that this hypothesis was tenative.[3] The Pampore specimen was found to have its bones deliberately fractured by archaic humans, possibly for the purposes of butchery. At the site stone tools made of basalt were found. These tools were made using stone-knapping techniques reminiscent of the Levallois type, suggesting a late Middle Pleistocene age (possibly around 400-300,000 years ago[3]) for the site. There is no evidence that the elephant was hunted, and it may have been scavenged after dying of natural causes.[4]
| Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus Temporal range:
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|---|---|
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| Holotype skull | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | Elephantidae |
| Genus: | †Palaeoloxodon |
| Species: | †P. turkmenicus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus Dubrovo, 1955
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References
edit- ^ Dubrovo, I. A. (1955). New data on the anatomy and distribution of fossil elephant (Hesperoloxodon) (in Russian). Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 101, 759–762.
- ^ a b Larramendi, Asier; Zhang, Hanwen; Palombo, Maria Rita; Ferretti, Marco P. (February 2020). "The evolution of Palaeoloxodon skull structure: Disentangling phylogenetic, sexually dimorphic, ontogenetic, and allometric morphological signals". Quaternary Science Reviews. 229: 106090. Bibcode:2020QSRv..22906090L. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106090. S2CID 213676377.
- ^ a b Jukar, Advait M.; Bhat, Ghulam; Parfitt, Simon; Ashton, Nick; Dickinson, Marc; Zhang, Hanwen; Dar, A. M.; Lone, M. S.; Thusu, Bindra; Craig, Jonathan (2024-10-11). "A remarkable Palaeoloxodon (Mammalia, Proboscidea) skull from the intermontane Kashmir Valley, India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. doi:10.1080/02724634.2024.2396821. ISSN 0272-4634.
- ^ Bhat, Ghulam M.; Ashton, Nick; Parfitt, Simon; Jukar, Advait; Dickinson, Marc R.; Thusu, Bindra; Craig, Jonathan (October 2024). "Human exploitation of a straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon) in Middle Pleistocene deposits at Pampore, Kashmir, India". Quaternary Science Reviews. 342: 108894. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108894.