Lazio

The skeleton belongs to a male specimen evidence for the reconstruction of Palaeoloxodon antiquus, the straight-tusked elephant, a species
of elephant that was widespread in Europe during the Middle and Upper Pleistocene; it could reach a height of nearly 5 meters at the withers and had tusks up to 4 meters long .

This specimen, whose skull has been reconstructed due to a marked deformation, is estimated to be about 400.000 years old. It was discovered in the 1950s at a site near Grotte Santo Stefano, in the province of Viterbo, by staff from the Museum of Geology and Palaeontology in Rome, where it was reassembled in 1970. At the same site, in 1941, another nearly complete skeleton belonging to an individual of the same species, believed to be female, had already been discovered; it is now housed at the G. Doria Museum in Genoa.

The determination of the sex of the two specimens is based on specific anatomical characteristics, including the size of the skull and pelvis, the proportions of the hand bones and the atlas, the first cervical vertebra. However, this classification involves a certain degree of uncertainty, and further investigation will likely be necessary.

Analysis of the heavily worn molars also made it possible to estimate the age of both individuals, which is between 35 and 40 years.