They stayed closed for a year. Now prehistoric museum operator Peter Kapustin has revealed where he and his sons found prehistoric elephants: in the community of Langenpreising.
Taufkirchen/Langenpreising
– Three ten-million-year-old prehistoric elephants – this find by Peter Kapustin in the Erding district is already known. In a press conference on Monday, the operator of the Taufkirchen Prehistoric Museum revealed where exactly he came across this prehistoric elephant cemetery: Jurassic Park is located in Weipersdorf in the municipality of Langenpreising. Research into this will continue for years. Among the 120 bones secured are the tooth of an ancient rhinoceros and the bones of a prehistoric cat.
“This is really a sensation. We had the last one 20 years ago, the Augsburg ancestral elephant, and 50 years ago the Mühldorf ancestral elephant,” says Dr. Gertrud Rößner, senior curator at the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology.
Kapustin is self-taught. However, his expertise and instinct led him to the right place. In 2004, the skull and other bones of a deinotherium, i.e. prehistoric elephants, were discovered in the sand pit in the north of the district. “I made a pilgrimage to this place for 20 years and always thought: Maybe something else will come,” says the 40-year-old.
And indeed: On April 13, 2023, the Taufkirchen native went hunting for fossils there with his sons Alexander (10) and Constantin (9). The boys ran ahead. “Constantin suddenly screamed: I have something!” is how the dad describes the goosebumps moment. At a large foxhole, the brothers found a strange, hand-sized nodule of lime in the sand: a rib piece coated in lime. Together they searched the walls of the burrow and saw a huge bone running across the cave. The actual discoverers are Kapustin's sons. Accordingly, he named the original elephants “Big Alex” and “Little Consti”. Later, the femur of a third deinotherium was found: “Lonely Pete.”
2023 was worked on for months. “The bones had been underground for ten million years and were extremely affected by frost and water,” explains preparator Nils Knötschke. Using lots of plaster, PU foam and superglue, the bones were stabilized to such an extent that they would not crumble apart on site. The Dorfen nature filmmaker Jan Haft accompanied the excavations. The screams of joy of Kapustin and the geologist Alexander Benn as they uncover a jawbone are recorded.
According to Kapustin, 1,600 hours were spent on preparation and excavation, as well as a high five-figure sum. The small prehistoric museum, which is run by an association, will cover these costs. There is already an application for a doctoral project.
The deinotheres would have reached a shoulder height of four to five meters, describes Dr. Roessner. Today's African elephants are 3.5 meters tall. The Weipersdorf specimens have not yet been completely measured, but according to Kapustin, this much is clear: “Both the skull from 2004 and the current one indicate that they were not yet fully grown animals.”
The pit has now been filled. There is a cultivated field on the site. That's why we were now able to go public. “Over the last year we have had some concerns,” says Kapustin about possible “grave robbers.” The citizens of Weipersdorf kept a very watchful eye on the excavation site. In particular, the property owner, who does not want to be named publicly, was very helpful.