河边平泉县发现已绝迹长毛象化石

Ivory and bone fossils believed to be the fossils of a woolly mammoth have been discovered in a small village in North China's Hebei province, Xinhua News agency reported Tuesday.

新华社周二报道，在中国北部河北省的一个小村庄发现了被认为是长毛象的象牙和骨头的化石。

Yang Haiqing, a local farmer from Lijia village of Pingquan county, Hebei province, found the fossils while cleaning his vegetable cellar last week. The findings were later indentified by experts in Beijing as the fossils of a woolly mammoth, a type of extinct animal that lived about 10,000 years to 1.8 million years ago.

河北省平泉县李家村当地村民杨海清上周在清理自家蔬菜地窖时发现了这些化石，随后经北京专家鉴定为长毛象化石。长毛象生活在约1万年到180万年前，现在已经灭绝。

The unearthed ivory fragment is about 80 centimeters long and 18 centimeters in diameter and is connected by what looks like the head bone of the mammoth. Most of the fossils were not dug out but kept under the protection of local authorities, Xinhua said.

出土的象牙碎片长约80厘米，直径为18厘米，且与似为长毛象头骨的骨头。大多数头骨并未挖出，而是交由地方当局保护，新华社说。

Experts have yet to determine the age of the fossils, and DNA tests are still underway.

专家暂不能确定化石的年龄，DNA实验尚在进行中。