The treasure of Taizhou Museum, also known as the only basically complete male elk skeleton fossil in the world from the Neolithic Age, was recently shown in all its glory on China Central Television's news channel.
The extraordinary male elk skeleton fossil. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfabu]
The ancient fossil was unearthed in Sixiang sub-district in the Taizhou Medical High-tech Zone, Taizhou city, East China's Jiangsu province.
A local excavated a deer's head with horns there in 1976 and when the villagers didn't know the origin of the find, they sent it to the city museum.
Ultimately, 74 elk bones were excavated, before being assembled subsequently as a relatively complete elk skeleton.
Later, these fossil samples were identified by experts from the Shanghai Natural History Museum as going back over 6,000 years.
Taizhou is widely known as the "hometown of the elk" and this elk fossil proves that the creature has been active in the region for a very long time.
Taizhou is known far and wide as the hometown of the elk. [Photo/WeChat account: tzfabu]