Discovery and significance of Manmuthus fossil in Gonghe basin, Qinghai Province

Recently elephant fossils have been for the first time discovered in Late Pleistocene in Gonghe basin, Qinghai Province. Their basic features are described. Primary identification suggests that the elephant fossils are the leg bones, ribs and teeth fossil, and a piece of calcifyed tree fossil has been collected in the same horizon. Based on the characteristics of the enamel layer, ridge frequency of the tooth piece, those fossils are mammuthus primigenius. On the basis of studies of the Mammuthus primigenius fossil, combined with the regional geology and primary analyses of the sedimentological features of the strata where the elephant fossils occur, the authors think that the climate was cold and aridity during late Late Pleistocene in Gonghe basin, Qinghai Province. The evolution and migration of mammuthus were thoughtfully noted in the Gonghe basin. This discovery may help us understand the migration of Mammuthus, the climate change and the tectonic movement in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The new data have been made for the biological evolution, the lake and river evolution, the climate change, the paleogeography and the paleoenvironment changes, and the stratigraphic division of the the Quaternary period.