STORY: This is what it could have looked like, the primeval elephant that roamed the area of present-day Chile around 12,000 years ago. A research team has found the remains of so-called gomphotheres near Lake Tagua Tagua in the south of the country. The prehistoric proboscis animals are related to the elephants living today. An adult animal could be up to three meters long and weigh four tons. The traces from the past allow the scientists to draw conclusions about the present, as the archaeologist Elisa Calas explains. “We can get a lot of information here, for example about climate change and how it affects animals. The impact that humans have had on the environment corresponds very well with what is happening today in terms of the environment.” Humans were apparently fatal to the gomphotheres in southern Chile. The research team suspects that large groups of hunters crossed their path.