LAHORE, May 6: The Punjab University’s paleontology research team has dug out two-million-year-old tusk of an elephant from the sands of Tatrot, about 40kms southeast of Jhelum.

The team, headed by Dr Muhammad Akhtar, has four PhD scholars — Zubaidul Haq, Abdul Ghaffar, Zafar Hameed Bhatti and Omar Farooq — and laboratory in-charge Maskeen Ali.

The researchers had gone to Tatrot for field work in connection with their thesis, and found 10-foot-long tusk of an elephant.

In a news release issued on Tuesday, Dr Akhtar said the tusk belonged to the living Asiatic genus called Elephas. He said the length of the tusk was 10 feet and diameter end 8.5 inches.

The recorded length of the tusk of Asiatic Elephant (Elephas) was seven feet in male, if the age of elephant was 90 years. Whereas, he said, the length of newly discovered tusk was 10 feet. He added the tusk was the largest so far discovered from Pleistocene age for the first time and it was probably used in defence.