Africa: 100 Elephant Tusks on Sunken Ship Lost 500 Years Ago Now Found Published December 17th, 2020 - 08:07 GMT (Shutterstock) Highlights The study reveals that African forest elephants were already living in the savannah in the early 16th century – challenging the notion that they first moved out of the rainforest in the early 20th century. A hoard of more than 100 elephant tusks aboard a sunken ship that was lost for nearly 500 years has been traced to West Africa in a new study. Scientists used DNA analysis to compare the well-preserved tusks – recovered from a 16th century Portuguese shipping vessel called the Bom Jesus that was discovered in 2008 – to those belonging to various species of modern-day elephants.