For decades, scientists debated whether the Turkmen skull represented a separate species or an aberrant individual of the well-documented European Palaeoloxodon antiquus. However, the discovery of ...

The Turkmen skull also doesn’t have a crest on its skull roof and has features that are similar to a well-known European species called Palaeoloxodon antiquus. According to the team, this led a ...

In other words, this means P. antiquus and P. namadicus were two distinguishable species inhabiting different regions. However, a Palaeoloxodon skull discovered in Turkmenistan breaks this mould.