Costa Rica digs up mastodon, giant sloth bones in major archaeological find

Deutsche Tageszeitung - Costa Rica digs up mastodon, giant sloth bones in major archaeological find

Costa Rica digs up mastodon, giant sloth bones in major archaeological find / Photo: © Costa Rica's Ministry of Culture/AFP

Researchers in Costa Rica have unearthed fossils from a mastodon and a giant sloth that lived as many as 40,000 years ago, officials announced Friday, calling it the biggest such find here in decades.

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The National Museum said the bones were found by accident on private property in Cartago province of the Central American country, east of the capital San Jose.

"Preliminary studies based on geological analysis of the terrain and the different layers of soil indicate the remains could be between 10,000 and 40,000 years old," the museum said in a statement.

Researchers have so far recovered 49 bone pieces including a femur, vertebrae and ribs, it added.

The museum called the find of the elephant relative and the ancestor of today's slow-moving tree-dwellers with long, curved claws "one of the most relevant" in Costa Rica in decades.

The fossils will be exhibited in the National Museum, Culture and Youth Minister Jorge Rodriguez said.

(O.Zhukova--DTZ)

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Deutsche Tageszeitung - Costa Rica digs up mastodon, giant sloth bones in major archaeological find