By Laura Geggel, Senior
Writer | August 30, 2017 01:57pm ET
CALGARY, Alberta — Half a
million years ago, the Arabian Peninsula wasn't a sandy desert but rather a
lush, wet landscape. There, a gigantic elephant — 50 percent larger than
today's biggest elephants — tromped around an ancient lake before dying, a new
fossil skeleton reveals.
The behemoth, known as Elephas
recki, is an ancient elephant species that existed from about 3.5 million years
ago to about 300,000 years ago and lived in parts of Africa and the Middle
East, said study lead researcher, Iyad Zalmout, a paleontologist with the Saudi
Geological Survey in Jeddah.
Researchers first began
uncovering the newfound animal's remains in northwestern Saudi Arabia's Nafud
Desert in 2014, but other parts of the same individual were unearthed as
recently as this year, and excavation work is ongoing, said study co-researcher
Dan Fisher, the director of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of
Michigan. [Mammoth
Resurrection: 11 Hurdles to Bringing Back an Ice Age Beast]
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