Three 7.7 million-year-old elephant skulls were found in Kayseri.

Excavations are continuing in the Yamula Dam area, which was discovered in 2017 upon a notice from a goat shepherd and started in the region a year later.

Fossil excavations are being carried out around the Yamula Dam in the Kocasinan district, built on the Kızılırmak River, with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, under the scientific consultancy of Prof. Dr. Okşan Başoğlu and Prof. Dr. Pınar Gözlük Kırmızıoğlu, under the sponsorship of the Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality and under the direction of the Kayseri Museum Directorate.

The region is notable for its fossil diversity, including fossils of giraffes, elephants, mammoths, rhinos, three-toed horses, hollow-horned sheep known as bovites, goats, antelopes, turtles and pigs.

Expert archaeologist Ömer Dağ told an AA correspondent that he and his teammates were continuing the excavations around the dam.

Dağ, noting that they discovered mostly elephant fossils during the excavation this year, said, "We can say this year is the year of the elephant. Since the excavations began in 2018, we were able to find two skulls, but this year we discovered three skulls in just one season. One of them had a lower jaw attached to it. The preservation of the tusks (the elephants' longest tusks) was a bit poor, but all three skulls were nearly complete."

Dağ emphasized that they had radioisotope analysis performed to date the region, saying, "Our Çevril and Taşhan regions were dated to 7.7 million years. Our Hırka region was dated to 7.5 million years. We can say the dating is 7.7 million years. We found the elephant fossils in a spot we call the Çevril neighborhood. In fact, we now call it the 'elephant region' because that's where we discovered the elephant fossils. Some of the fossils we found were 100 meters apart, while others were 200-300 meters apart. I can say that this year was very rich in elephants."

Dağ, explaining that the most important feature of the fossil excavations in Kayseri is that they contain megafauna (giant animal) features, stated that the preservation status and size of the giant fossils are also found remarkable by world literature.

Pointing out that the fossils also provide information about the paleogeography (past geography) of the region, Dağ noted:

"The fact that elephants gather in one spot and are observed to be densely populated provides information about the paleogeography of the spot we found them in. Some elephant species we've identified actually find their food by scraping the swamp with their lower jaw. We can also observe that some elephant specimens feed entirely on the shoots on trees, knocking them down. In fact, we believe that the finding of fossils in different spots is entirely related to the paleogeography of that period."

Dağ added that this season they also found fossils of a three-toed horse, a rhinoceros, and a saber-toothed tiger, which belongs to the carnivorous group.