Cai Huiyang, an archeologist with the Guizhou Museum, said the oldest and most intact tapir fossil ever found in Guizhou province provides valuable evidence for the study of the climate and geographic environment in ancient times.

According to Cai, a farmer of the Xinba Village of Qingzhen City, stumbled upon the fossil while hoeing his own soil. He also unearthed fossils of deer and mice.

A geographic survey found the tapir well preserved, said Cai.

Before that, there was only a tiny piece of jawbone fossil stored in the Guizhou Museum, although archeologists believed tapirs to have been widely scattered throughout the province.

Looking like a pig, but having a larger size, the herbivorous animal favored a warm and damp environment and became extinct around 10,000 years ago.

Currently, only the Malaysia Tapir that the archeologist calleda "close relative" of the fossilized one, is left in the world.

(People's Daily January 6, 2003)