Tham Le Stegodon is a limestone cave that is outstanding in terms of geology since it is a stream cave with a length of no less than 4 kilometers. There are still formations of stalactites and stalagmites in many beautiful and strange shapes, which are stalactite tube, plastered limestone, and stalactite curtain, etc. It is considered to be a live cave.
There was also an important discovery of many vertebrate fossils around the ground of the stream along the length of the cave, such as jowls and lower jaw teeth of the ancient Stegodon elephant with an age of about 1.8 million years to 10,000 years ago, the jaw plate of the ancient elephant, the jaw of the ancient rhino, and antler, etc. It is considered to be an outstanding cave in terms of landform and fossils.
It is a cave in the limestone mountain range with the shape like the cave under the mountain. Inside the cave, there are winding paths from the mount of the cave until the exit about 4 kilometers long.
The important outstanding point of the cave is the discovery of the elephant fossil and rhino in the period of Pleistocene, especially elephants in the Stegodon clan, in which it is the source of the cave’s name “Lay Stegodon Cave.”
Such fossils are the jowls with the 2nd and 3rd teeth of the lower right jaw teeth of the ancient elephant. It is believed to be the discovery of the elephant’s jowl in the Stegodon clan.
Tham Le Stegodon
Location: Thung Wa, Thung Wa District, Satun 91120 Thailand
