First known skull of extinct-prehistoric elephant kin found in Solan, Cagayan; study suggested the Stegodons once crossed the Wallace Line into the Philippines

Solana, Cagayan – Paleontologists recently identified the first known skull of an extinct prehistoric relative of the elephant found in Lannig Solana, Cagayan after a groundbreaking discovery in 2020.

The scientists said it is a Stegodon, suggesting that a group of the said ancient creature arrived by island-hopping rather than crossing land bridges, challenging previous assumptions about their migration.

The discovery of the Stegodon, an extinct relative of modern elephants believed to be tens of thousands of years old, is shedding a new light on the prehistoric wildlife that once roamed the Philippines.

Paleonthologists Meyrick U. Tablizo and Dr. Allan Gil S. Fernando of the UPD-CS National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS), and Dr. Gerrit D. van den Bergh from the University of Wollongong have recently published a study describing the million-year-old Stegodon skull just last month, August 2025.

Titled “Island-hopping across the Wallace Line: A new Pleistocene Stegodon fossil skull from Luzon (Philippines) reveals dispersal links to Wallacea,” the study suggests the species island-hopped across the Wallace Line to reach the Philippines, rather than using land bridges.

Discovered in 2020 within deposits of the Awidon Mesa Formation (ca. 788,000–1,000,000 years old), according to the Nannoworks Laboratory, said fossil includes a deformed skull, tusk stumps, and a distinctive molar. It likely belonged to a juvenile stegodon slightly taller than the average Filipino.

The Lannig fossil belongs to the Stegodon trigonocephalus group and closely resembles Wallacean species, a biogeographic zone between Asia and Australia, suggesting that large mammals once crossed the Wallace Line into the Philippines.

Stegodons, according to the Earth Archives, existed from 11 million to 10,000 years ago across Asia, Africa, and North America, with tusks reaching up to 10 feet, nearly as long as their bodies.

It can be recalled that in 2007, archaeologists discovered 70,000-year-old human bones which they soon named as the “Callao Man” as it was discovered in the Callao Cave near Peñablanca, Cagayan—pushing back evidence of human presence in the Philippines by 20,000 years.

Moreover, in 2014, butchered rhinoceros remains along with ancient hunting tools was also excavated in barangay San Pedro Rizal, Kalinga suggesting early humans—likely Homo erectus to be skilled hunters during the Pleistocene, also known as the Ice Age.

Now on display at the Cagayan Museum in Tuguegarao City, the Lannig Stegodon skull gives a new perspective on ancient migration routes and the rich prehistoric past of the Philippines and that these discoveries shows a clearer picture of the ancient wildlife of the country.