Chapter three hundred and fifty-ninth saber-toothed elephant
Han Peacock observed the cave entrance that was covered by the old elephant. Each stone outside the cave entrance weighed five to six hundred kilograms. There were also some thick teak trees with huge root systems placed around them. This way
In this place, only elephants can come and go at will.
Han Peacock took out the engineer catalpa he had prepared, cleared the tree trunks blocking the road, and then took out a crowbar, intending to pry off a few stones silently.
In such a quiet night, Han Peacock still didn't want to make a huge noise without making any noise.
Han Peacock has a lot of strength, so it is really not difficult to pry open a few rocks weighing several hundred kilograms.
Prying open the trees and boulders piled up at the entrance of the elephant cemetery, just when Han Kongque hesitated to go in immediately, a dying old elephant staggered out, but was easily knocked down by the crowbar in Han Kongque's hand.
, before dying, it let out several long and sad howls.
Looking at the old elephant lying on the ground, Han Peacock broke out in a cold sweat. This old elephant was so strong that it had not died even after five days.
Fortunately, it was too weak, otherwise, Han Peacock would not have been able to knock it down with a crowbar.
After bypassing the huge old elephant, Han Peacock took out a headlamp and put it on his head and entered the cave. He was not afraid of being discovered that there was light here.
When the light shone like a dark cave, Han Peacock was stunned.
The cave is full of white elephant bones and ivory. These elephant bones and tusks are all piled up in dry places deep in the cave. There is nothing else except some pools of water.
Han Peacock looked at the well-organized elephant tomb in amazement, and took another look at the dead old elephant. Could it be that after it came in, it collected the elephant bones and tusks over there?
Picked up a pair of tusks. Han Peacock looked carefully and found that the top pairs were actually white.
The ivory on the market now can be divided into African ivory and Asian ivory. African ivory is generally longer. Its dentition is relatively hard and milky white. The best quality ones mainly come from Tanzania and Cameroon.
Asian ivory is generally shorter, white in color but easy to turn yellow, and the elephant here must be an Asian elephant. The pair of ivory tusks that Han Peacock is holding now has obviously not turned yellow yet, which means that the elephant died.
It's not very long.
Thinking of this, Han Peacock's expression changed. He searched quickly. Soon, he saw a lot of white elephant bones from the top of the bone mountain. Of course, he also picked out four pairs of ivory tusks.
The previous pair is no longer a pair.
This means that in recent years, at least five elephants have been buried in this elephant tomb. If we add the two that came here in the past few days, seven elephants have died in sequence in recent years.
What does this mean? This means that there is a huge elephant herd nearby, otherwise there would not be so many old elephants here.
Han Peacock played with the tusks for a while and then put them away. Trade of new tusks like this was prohibited in the country. If they were discovered, they would only be destroyed, and Han Peacock would also face great trouble.
Therefore, this kind of thing cannot be taken out openly.
However, this new ivory cannot be taken out, but no one cares about the old ivory. When it comes to the protection of rare animals and plants, some Western countries have stricter laws than China, but in these countries, China’s ancient ivory products are
Can be circulated.
Therefore, many people say that the whole world bans the trade of ivory and its products, why can China trade it? That is actually all nonsense.
Some countries want to ban the ivory trade, but some countries are still unwilling! Especially some countries in Africa, they still rely on ivory products to stimulate the domestic economy!
Han Peacock has carving skills, so he is not afraid that the ivory in his hand will not be circulated. Of course, he has no idea of circulating it now, after all, he is not short of money.
Han Peacock kept picking up some elephant bones. From these elephant bones, he could even tell whether it was a male elephant or a female elephant, because female elephants do not have too long tusks.
All elephants have tusks, but not every elephant has long tusks.
Both male and female African elephants have large tusks, while Asian elephants only have male elephants, and female elephants have no exposed tusks.
Due to serious poaching, some Asian elephant bulls now have no tusks. This must be the result of human selection: all bull elephants with tusks are hunted, and only the occasional male elephants without tusks are spared.
The result is that, due to genetic reasons, more and more of their offspring are born without those long tusks.
Han Peacock moved very quickly. At first he picked up some old ivory and inspected it, but later on, he turned into a mechanical operation of picking up elephant bones and putting away the tusks.
After removing some of the elephant bones piled up on top, Han Peacock pulled out a pair of huge ivory tusks. Han Peacock weighed it with his hands. The ivory was 1.45 meters long. Such large tusks are really rare.
.
The surface of this ivory is light red and has longitudinal shallow grooves. This is obviously an old tooth, because new teeth are off-white and old teeth are yellow.
These two tusks should be the tusks of adult elephants. They are huge, smooth, hard, and look very imposing. They are completely on a different level from the tusks that Han Peacock put away earlier.
After putting away this pair, Han Peacock immediately discovered another pair of tusks. This ivory was about 80 centimeters long and 10 centimeters in diameter. From the analysis of the elephant's skull, it actually looked like the head of a female elephant. This made Han Peacock
Peacock was a little surprised.
He hesitated, and this time he did not collect only the ivory, but also collected all the elephant bones, and put them aside separately, not together with the ivory collected earlier.
As the elephant bones continue to be excavated, the age of the elephant bones below becomes older, and the longer these dead elephants have been dead.
Han Peacock thought that he might be able to find out the evolutionary process of Asian elephants from here.
From the disappearance of the female elephant's tusks to the disappearance of the male elephant's tusks now, there must have been a gradual process. Maybe there is an answer in this elephant tomb.
Thinking of this, Han Peacock speeded up again. This time he no longer chose, but directly collected all the exposed elephant bones into the Xuanyuan Water Control Flag.
Anyway, the internal space of Xuanyuan Water Control Flag is huge, so it is definitely a good idea to store them all. Even if many elephant bones prove to be useless in the future, he will just throw them away.
Korean Peacock collected the piles of elephant bones layer by layer, and among these elephant bones, some long tusks would appear from time to time. These ivory tusks had a tendency to get longer and longer.
From the moment he was shocked when he saw a pair of 45-meter-long ivory to the final moment of numbness, he actually completed it in a very short period of time.
Korean Peacock moved very quickly. He just found a pair of long tusks, and then he was attracted by a pair of longer and thicker tusks.
He even saw a pair of ivory that was nearly two meters long. The ivory was like a sword and was completely green. This made Han Peacock put it aside and wanted to find time to play with it carefully.
In addition to such a special pair of ivory, the Korean peacock also looked for some other ones, such as sky blue ivory and light red ivory.
Among these tusks, the most milky white ones are, especially the lower tusks, which are more milky white and then yellow.
There are not many light red ones, but compared to green ivory, there are a lot more.
The Korean peacock saw a total of three pairs of green ivory tusks, but he only saw one pair of blue ivory.
This was the first time Han Peacock saw blue ivory, so he was very surprised. Even when he saw green ivory, he was not so surprised.
Although he knew that green ivory was very valuable, he had never even heard of blue ivory.
Just as Han Kongque was about to carefully put away the pair of huge blue ivory tusks, he accidentally glanced at the pile of elephant bones and found that there seemed to be many things emitting blue light inside.
Han Peacock immediately started to rummage through it, and soon, he pulled out five pairs of blue ivory. Han Peacock looked at these obviously larger elephant bones, and he suddenly thought of something.
Are these prehistoric elephants?
Han Peacock only knew from the information that the tusks of prehistoric elephants could be blue. Of course, he had only seen this before, and no one seemed to have seen the real thing.
Thinking of this, Han Kongque knew that the history of this elephant tomb should be very long, perhaps extending to prehistory.
If it has been passed down from prehistory and has been used as a cemetery for elephants, doesn’t it mean that from prehistory to the present, this entire place is a complete book on elephant evolution?
Thinking of this, Han Peacock turned around and collected the remains of the elephants that had died in modern times that he had previously abandoned. Although these were not of high value, they could form a complete history of elephant evolution and were of some reference value.
However, with this idea, Han Kongque was confused again. If this elephant tomb is really handed down from prehistory, then are there a lot of elephant bones here?
Although he was full of doubts, Han Peacock didn't waste time, so he didn't slow down in collecting elephant bones.
We will leave here tomorrow. After Han Peacock wants to empty out these elephant bones, he will also search the cave carefully. There may be other gains!
He thought well, but the situation here was obviously beyond his expectation. As the layers of elephant bones on top were put away by him, by the time the elephant bones were placed, he had dug out ten
A few meters deep, he discovered another huge thing.
This is also the skeleton of an elephant. This elephant skeleton is very large. The front end is a large tusk that is more than three meters long, followed by the skull and lower jaw.
The tusks are more than 3 meters long, like two long swords. Can such an elephant still be called an elephant?
Therefore, this kind of elephant should be called Stegodon. Stegodon was widely distributed millions of years ago and was found in many parts of Asia. Its fossils have also been found in Asan Kingdom.