TEHRAN – A team of Iranian archaeologist has found some 400 fossil remains, estimated to date ten million years.

The remains belong to horses, saber-toothed tigers, deer, gazelles, giraffes, rhinoceros, elephants and some other carnivores, Tasnim reported on Tuesday.

The discovery was made near the northern village of Ahaq in Maragheh county, which is renowned as a fossil paradise.

So far, enormous herbivorous fossils such as ones related to mastodons and deinotherium (kinds of elephants and rhinos), and some other extinct mammals have been found in Maragheh.

Last year, Mikael Fortelius, a professor of Evolutionary Paleontology at the University of Helsinki, publicized that archaeologists had unearthed some fossils dating back more than 8 million years in Maragheh that show high potential for further excavations in this region.

“If archaeologists can unearth fossils dating back to around 11 or 12 million years ago, the fossil site of Maragheh would become more important than ever,” he noted.

Maragheh has been the focus of paleontologists and geologists for many years since its native fauna is considered one of the three most preeminent western Eurasian late Miocene Pikermian faunas, along with Samos and Pikermi in Greece.

AFM