Mammoth skeleton unearthed in Serbia

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The skeleton of a mammoth believed to be one million years old has been discovered in eastern Serbia.The discovery was made at a coal mine, close to the Imperial Mausoleum of the Viminacium Archaeological Park. The bones were found 27 meters deep, in a layer of yellow sand.

The Park's director believes the near complete skeleton belongs to one of the oldest mammoth species found in Europe.

Miomir Korac, the director of Viminacium Archaeological site, said, "Science is advancing very fast, and we will be able to find out what environment the mammoth lived in, moved in, what the mammoth ate and what disease made her ill. All these things, and the preservation of the whole skeleton, is very rare and it's very important for all those who have been researching such things."

According to analysts,the mammoth died and remained in a layer of some sort of gravel, which helped preserve it. Not even tectonic movements have moved or dislocated the skeleton so the animal was found the way it died.

The mammoth was more than 4 meters high, 5 meters long and weighed more than 10 tons.

Unlike a mammoth found in northern Serbia, whose remains are some half a million years old, this one is believed to have come from northern Africa.

Scientists say the find is exceptionally important, consisting of almost the entire skeleton of the oldest mammoth species known to have lived in Europe.

This mammoth will be restored and exhibited at the Archaeological Park in Viminacium,once a major Roman stronghold,in the territory of today's Serbia.