It is widely assumed that the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca crossed the Western Alps some 2200 Years ago with an army of men, horses and elephants in direction of Italy and the Roman Republic. But sadly, we have not found many evidence of that event and thus don't even know the exact route. What we also know is that Hannibal's elephants died during that route. It was more than 30 elephants and also we know that elephants are not really typical fauna of the Alps. That leads me to the question - how is it possible that we never found any elephant fossils in the Western Alps yet? Is it possible that the story of Hannibal crossing the Alps was made up? Did he just take the shortcut via Massalia and Liguria in the south? Did he use the Carthaginian fleet to invade northern Italy?