Mammoth bones found on dry Danube bed in Bulgaria

Bone fragments very likely belonging to a woolly mammoth have been found on the exposed bed of the Danube near the northeastern Bulgarian city of Ruse, a local museum director said.

Nikolay Nenov, director of the Regional Historical Museum, told AFP that specialists had identified a jaw bone, fragments of tusks, part of a shoulder blade and a femur with its articular head among the remains.

The remains were spotted by chance on July 29 by a resident of Ryahovo village in the Ruse region and collected the next day by museum experts.

Nenov said the animal is thought to have been young. He said the dark colour of the bones may indicate that it spent a lot of time in a marshy environment.

He described the find as important because the bones are well preserved and concentrated in one place, indicating that they belonged to the same animal. Specialists are planning another search of the area in the hope of finding more remains.

The Danube has dropped to record low levels in parts after prolonged rain shortages and successive heatwaves since May.