This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A remarkably preserved elephant tooth previously recovered from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY-NBA)—a prehistoric site in northern Israel where early humans made stone tools some 700,000 years ago—has now enabled researchers to reconstruct a lush landscape of woodlands, wetlands and waterways from the Pleistocene. The findings provide a rare glimpse into the environment shared by giant elephants and some of the region's earliest human populations.
The elephant remains were discovered alongside basalt handaxes and cleavers, hallmark tools of the Acheulian tradition, one of the earliest and most widespread stone-tool technologies in human history. Researchers combined multiple analytical techniques to reconstruct a resource-rich environment of woodlands, grasslands, wetlands and waterways that helped sustain both large mammals and early humans along the Levantine land bridge connecting Africa and Eurasia. Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, the study led by Hannah Farrell (a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Haifa) focuses on findings from excavations at GBY-NBA conducted by professor Gonen Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee and his colleagues.
The research examines a giant elephant molar and tusk fragments discovered alongside Acheulian stone tools at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (Daughters of Jacob Bridge), located in the Jordan Rift Valley, south of today's Hula Valley in northern Israel. The remains belonged to Palaeoloxodon antiquus, the straight-tusked elephant, one of the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene. Rather than studying the elephant alone, researchers used the tooth as a biological archive to reconstruct the broader ecosystem shared by large mammals and early human toolmakers.
According to Sharon, "understanding how humans and animals responded to environmental change hundreds of thousands of years ago helps us better understand the forces that shaped our species." Using CT scanning, 3D reconstruction, microscopic wear analysis, isotope geochemistry and pollen studies, the team found evidence for a long-lasting landscape of woodlands, grasslands, marshes, rivers and shallow-water habitats. Carbon isotope values suggest the elephant lived in a consistently well-watered environment, while pollen recovered from sediments revealed abundant wetland vegetation, including reeds, sedges, willow, tamarisk and aquatic plants. The findings indicate that the Hula Valley region formed part of a stable ecological refuge within the Levantine Corridor, the land bridge connecting Africa and Eurasia.
Such environments likely provided reliable water and biological resources for wildlife and human groups moving through the region during the Pleistocene. "The availability of water, vegetation and animal resources shaped where humans and wildlife could survive," Sharon says. "The wetlands, rivers and woodlands of the Hula Valley helped sustain life along one of the world's earliest migration corridors, offering a rare opportunity to understand the ecological conditions that supported both animals and human populations nearly 700,000 years ago." The study was conducted by Ph.D. candidate Farrell of the University of Haifa at a site excavated by Sharon of Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee, in collaboration with Cheryl A.
Makarewicz (isotope studies) and Nimrod Marom (archaeozoology) from the University of Haifa, along with Minji Jin and Dafna Langgut (pollen studies) from Tel Aviv University. Hannah Farrell et al, Elephant dental remains from the Acheulian site at North Bridge Acheulian–Gesher Benot Ya'aqov: hominin behavior and environmental implications, Quaternary Science Reviews (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.110277 Journal information: Quaternary Science Reviews Provided by Tel-Hai University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee BSc Life Sciences & Ecology.
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