Experts from the Vietnam Archaeology Institute and the Museum of Tuyen Quang Province collected a fossil tooth of an elephant in May 2012, during an archaeological survey in Son Duong district in the northern province of Tuyen Quang.

The elephant tooth fossil was found in the Lo River in Hong Lac commune, the home to a famous archaeological site in Tuyen Quang.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long, 63, a local man, said that the fossil was unearthed at the depth of over 2 meters under the river bed, in a sand and gravel mining hole.

Workers thought that the fossil was a rugger rock but they kept it just because of its strange shape.

The fossil was broken into three pieces but it has been glued up, weighing around 2.5 kilos. The tooth includes several slabs.

Dr. Trinh Nang Chung from the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology, head of the survey group, said this is a fossil of Asian elephant (elephas maximus) or Indian elephant. This species is smaller than African elephants. Asian elephants are 2.5 to 4 meters high and 3,000 to 4,000 kilos in weight.

Source: ANTD/ VNN