Chaloem Phra Kiat Fossil Excavation Site

Sandpits in Chaloem Phra Kiat District were created by the private sector, with permission from the Provincial Industrial Office. Digging sand for sale as a construction material in the city of Nakhon Ratchasima has been undertaken since 1985. There are more than ten sandpits scattered in the area near the banks of the Mun River. During the process of extracting the sand by suction in each pond, fossils of vertebrates were discovered, aged from 16-0.01 million years ago, such as ancient elephants, rhinoceroses, deer, pigs, turtles, crocodiles, and other contemporary animals, including more than 40 species, as well as petrified wood. The business owners have recovered these specimens and provided them to government agencies for research or conservation within the agency. As for the sandpits at this point, operation and cessation of sand suction occurred before 1995. Later, in 2019, private landowners along with the Treasury Department allowed Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University, through the Petrified Wood Research Institute, to use a total area of 18 rai for fossil conservation work for maximum benefit and sustainability by a construction project of an Ancient Elephant Museum along with landscape and infrastructure work. [Information board in situ]

Khorat ancient elephant herd refers to a group of ancient elephants found as fossils in sandpits of Chaloem Phra Kiat District from about 1985 to the present. The elephants are from different geological ages, from the Middle Miocene until the Pleistocene or the period 16-0.01 million years ago, with a total of 10 genera of 55 found around the world. Chaloem Phra Kiat District is considered to have the highest diversity of ancient elephants in the world. In addition, fossils of other contemporary animals have been found, comprising more than 40 species, some of which are classified as new world species, such as the ape Kheratpithecus, the anthracothere Merycopctamus. and the hornless rhinoceros Aceratherium. [Information board in situ]

The Ancient Elephant Museum Project - Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University prepared this project and proposed a request for a national budget of 134.375 million baht for the fiscal year 2022-2023. The proposed project consists of a building with a usable area of at least 2,600 square meters plus accessories. The building is designed in the shape of an elephant standing 35 meters high, with five floors, including the basement, and has both elevators and stairs, totalling 74.37 million baht. Exhibitions in geology, palaeontology, and paleoecology total 60 million baht. When the construction is completed, this museum will be the starting point of the world elephant travel route, starting from the ancient Khorat elephants to the present Surin elephants. It will be a large fossil elephant museum, 1 of 2 such museums in the world after the World Elephant Museum at Sukhothai Airport. [Information board in situ]

Ayutthaya Historical Research