Elephant tusks show, today’s forests were once warm savannas

A study by research teams at the National Museum of Natural Science and National Taiwan University has unveiled for the first time Taiwan’s missing Pleistocene ecosystem: grasslands and rivers dominated by a warm, arid savanna environment. It is published in Ancient Search Royal Society Open Science.

Dr. Chen-Hsiang Chang, a researcher at the National Museum of Natural Science, reported that stable carbon isotope analysis of the enamel of an upright elephant (Paelovoloxodon) showed animals on c.₄ Plants – Herbaceous plants using C₄ Photosynthetic pathway-approximate year. This diet is strikingly different from C₃Palaeoloxodon is introduced in Europe and Japan, which generally favor environments associated with forests or temperate regions.

Instead, their dietary profile is similar to that of Paleoloxodon species in India and Africa, which were adapted to tropical or subtropical grasslands. This confirms that the Taiwan Strait, when exposed as part of the landmass, was a dry, hot₄ Savannas, which are different from the forest landscapes currently seen on the island of Taiwan.

Dr. Chang emphasized that the discovery not only reconstructs the unique environment in the Far East, but also reveals a clear dietary differentiation within the genus Paleoloxodon on the Eurasian continent, which is linked to changes in latitude.

Additionally, elephant tusks provided paleohydrological data. National Taiwan University professor Cheng-Hsiu Tsai explained that oxygen isotope analysis used the fresh water resources of Taiwan’s Paleovoloxoden River. This supports the existence of large-scale freshwater rivers passing through the Taiwan Strait during the Pleistocene, providing solid evidence for the existence of an ancient river system.

Overall, this research is an important milestone for understanding East Asian paleoecology, evolutionary diversity, and regional species differentiation. Not only does this provide the first insight into Taiwan’s Pleistocene giant grassland river valley ecosystem, but also through isotope records sequenced by Ph.D. candidate at NTU, Deep S. Biswas, followed the milk-hiding behavior of juvenile palavoloxodon until about five to six years of age, significantly expanding the knowledge about the life history of these giant animals.