The upper arm weighs 100 kg, the shoulder blade is almost a meter in diameter. These are some of the characteristics of the huge prehistoric elephants that lived in the area where Munich is today 10 million years ago. The unusually well-preserved remains of three animals were found in the Erding area and, according to experts, the number of bones and their good condition is awe-inspiring. The animals, which are very similar to today’s elephants, weighed up to 13 tons and reached a height of 5 meters. The characteristic of this species is that their tusks were connected to the lower and not to the upper jaw, as in elephants today. Fossils of Deinotheri, as it is called, have also been found in Greece.

“At first we thought it was wood»

But the impressive thing in the case of Erding is that the discovery was made by two brothers aged 9 and 10, a year ago. His father Peter Kapustin, director and founder of the Museum of Prehistory in the town of Taufkrichen an der Wiels, trained as an economist and a self-taught paleontologist, often visited the area. In 2004 he discovered a Deinotherian skull. For 20 years he kept coming back to the same spot, he says, and thought maybe there was something more. But without result. Until April 13, 2023 and the impressive discovery of his children. Here’s how 10-year-old Alexander Kapustin describes the moment. “Konstantin and I thought it was wood at first. But dad told us it’s bone. And then when we discovered a big chunk, Dad fell on it and was afraid the bone was broken. But luckily it didn’t break in the end.”

Then began a months-long investigation with volunteers, which brought to light other findings, which were presented to reporters for the first time on Monday. Geologist and paleontologist Nils Knetske spoke of an important moment for science. For Deinotheria, Europe’s largest land mammals, the biggest discovery ever made was made in Erdink.

Why were they all in one place?

“Some of the bones were so badly broken that roots had penetrated. You have to imagine that there was a lot of pressure from the mountain with the soil pressing against the bones. If someone had used a shovel for the bones they would have been shattered into a thousand pieces. That would be a big problem. So we were forced to pour glue into the cracks. We left sand and soil in the cracks so the bones wouldn’t fall apart and used plaster in the classic way, with jute threads to retrieve the bones and get them out of the sediment intact.” It is not yet clear why the prehistoric elephant bones were all found in one place. Likely, like today’s elephants, they went to a specific place to die and so it may be a prehistoric elephant cemetery. But this is a hypothesis, it cannot be answered with certainty.

A large number of prehistoric elephant remains are known to exist in Bavaria, five of which are skeletons, including the finds in Erding. An excellent example is a gomphotherium discovered in 1971 near Milldorf, which is almost complete with almost 200 bones. Due to the favorable geological situation in the Molasse Basin north of the Alps, prehistoric elephant remains are relatively well preserved and close to the surface in the state of Bavaria.