Elephantids from Pleistocene Poland: State of knowledge

The presence of three elephant species (Mammuthus trogontherii, Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus, and Mammuthus primigenius) among fossil mammal assemblages from the Pleistocene has been established in Poland. The most abundant species in these finds is Mammuthus primigenius. Most fossil elephant remains have been provided by research from the 19th and 20th centuries, though there are more recent results from new localities. Recently obtained radiocarbon dates not only extend the existing data, but in two cases (32,641 ± 367 cal. BP and 32,568 ± 356 cal. BP) also reveal the presence of mammoths in a time interval during which they were previously thought to have been absent from Poland. This allows us to shift the gap in the mammoths' occurrence in Poland from 32.0 to 32.6 cal. ka BP. This paper is intended to present the current state of knowledge concerning the diversity of elephants and their geographical and temporal variability in Poland in the Pleistocene.