Malaysia 2025 "Fossil Discoveries in Malaysia"

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Issue Date	30.06.2025
ID	Michel: ; Scott: Stanley Gibbons: ; Yvert et Tellier: ; Category: pF
Design	Reign Associates Sdn Bhd
Stamps in set	4
Value	50sen -   Stegodon 50sen -   Pangolin RM1.50 - Iguanodon RM1.50 - Tiger
Emission/Type	commemorative
Issue place	Kuala Lumpur
Size (width x height)	stamps: 30.0mm x 45.0mm Souvenir-Sheet: 105.0mm x 71.0mm
Layout	Two Mini-Sheets of 20 stamps each. Stamps printed as se-tenant.
Products	FDC x1
Paper	102gsm TR8 OBA Free Stamp Paper
Perforation	14 x 14
Print Technique	Lithography
Printed by	Brebner Print, New Zealand
Quantity
Issuing Authority	POS Malaysia

On June 30^th, 2025, the Postal Authority of Malaysia, issued a set of four stamps "Fossil Discoveries in Malaysia".
Each stamp features a fossil, a reconstruction of the prehistoric animal, a human silhouette for scale, and a map showing the fossil discovery site. This special issue commemorates key scientific milestones in Malaysian paleontology, offering a curated glimpse into the country’s rich prehistoric heritage.
Depicting species from both the Cretaceous Period (approximately 145 to 66 million years ago) and the Pleistocene Epoch (roughly 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago), the stamps highlight not only the vast span of geological time, but also the enduring scientific value of fossil discoveries in shaping our understanding of natural history.

The collector folder with "Fossil Discoveries in Malaysia" stamps and FDC.

These stamps were sold by Pos Malaysia in a collector’s folder, which included two stamp sheets, a First Day Cover (FDC) cancelled at the Kuala Lumpur General Post Office (GPO), and an information flyer. The inside and outside of the folder featured the same content as the flyer.

Although Malaysia has not traditionally been recognized for fossil discoveries, interest in its paleontological potential has grown significantly in recent decades. Collaborative research with international institutions has led to the identification and cataloguing of previously unknown specimens. Ongoing efforts by local universities, museums, and government agencies continue to develop a national fossil record, contributing to both regional and global understanding of prehistoric life.
The release of this stamp series reflects a growing awareness of the importance of paleontological research, not only as a scientific pursuit but also as a vital cultural and educational resource.

Fossils are invaluable records of Earth’s prehistoric past. They provide direct evidence of the evolution of life, environmental changes, and the biodiversity of long-extinct ecosystems. By studying fossils, researchers can trace species lineages, explore ancient ecological relationships, and reconstruct past climates and landscapes.
Although still developing, Malaysia’s fossil record holds significant scientific value and continues to offer new insights into the region’s natural history.

• Archaeological work in Niah Cave, Sarawak, revealed a range of animal fossils, including those of extinct megafauna such as the Giant Pangolin and prehistoric tiger.
• In 2014, an Iguanodon's tooth fossil was unearthed in Terengganu, suggesting that the region was once part of a dynamic, dinosaur-inhabited world.
• A fossilized tooth of the Stegodon - a type of prehistoric elephant was discovered in Perak's Kinta Valley Geopark area, in 2020.

The prehistoric animals depicted on the stamps

Iguanodon

Reaching a length of about 10 meters, Iguanodon stood nearly 2 metres tall at the hip, and weighed four to five tons. It was an herbivore that likely consumed around 30 kilograms of plants each day. The dinosaur probably spent most of its time grazing while moving about on all four legs, although it was capable of walking on two legs. Iguanodon was one of the most successful dinosaurs, with fossils discovered across Europe, North Africa, North America, and Australia.

Iguanodon on stamp of Malaysia 2025, MiNr.: , Scott:

Two small dinosaur teeth, each about 1.5 cm long, were discovered in ex-situ conglomerate boulders, near Mount Gagau in the Kenyir Lake region of Hulu Terengganu, Malaysia. The teeth were identified as belonging to iguanodontians, a group of herbivorous dinosaurs related to genus Iguanodon. Due to the fragmentary nature of the fossils, they were assigned to Iguanodon indet. (indeterminate species).
The discovery was made during the 10-day "Gagau–Menjejak Dinosaur Expedition", held from October 13 to 22, 2014. The expedition team included researchers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia), Universiti Malaya (University of Malaya), Universiti Teknologi Petronas (Petronas University of Technology), and Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (University of Kelantan Malaysia). They were joined by two officers from the Terengganu Wildlife and National Parks Department and ten officers from the Department of Minerals and Geoscience.
The expedition was led by Professor Datuk Yunus Abdul Razak, Director-General of the Mineral and Geoscience Department of Malaysia, who served as both the project leader and official spokesperson.

Note: "Datuk", sometimes spelled "Dato", is an honorary title awarded by Malaysian royalty or state governors. It holds a similar level of prestige to a knighthood in the United Kingdom, such as the title “Sir.”

He emphasized the significance of the mission in confirming the presence of dinosaur fossils in Malaysia and in supporting the nomination of Kenyir Lake Geopark for UNESCO Global Geopark status. However, as of now, Kenyir Lake Geopark has not yet been recognized by UNESCO.

Mount Gagau is located at the Terengganu-Kelantan-Pahang border, where the expedition also found plant fossils, petrified wood and outcrops of coal in Sungai Pertang. I am confident this finding will strengthen and add value to our hopes to turn the Kenyir Lake Geopark into a National Geopark which is recognised as a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Along with the teeth, the expedition uncovered fossilized dinosaur tracks from three dinosaur groups: iguanodontids, theropods, and sauropods. These tracks were found at six different sites. Additionally, the team discovered four fossilized bones from theropods and sauropods, as well as plant fossils and petrified wood. Geological analysis suggests these fossils originated from Jurassic–Cretaceous red-bed formations, similar to those in nearby Thailand and Laos. This marked the first confirmed discovery of dinosaur fossils in Malaysia, dating back to the Late Cretaceous (approximately 145–66 million years ago).

The first stamp featuring an Iguanodon was issued by Belgium in 1966, depicted one of the mounted skeletons discovered at Bernissart in 1878, MiNr.: 1427, Scott: 664.

The species Iguanodon was the second dinosaur species to be named and was named based on the discovery of some teeth. Mary Ann Mantell (1795 - 1869), wife of Dr. Gideon Algernon Mantell (1790 - 1852), an English surgeon, geologist and amateur palaeontologist, discovered the first tooth in 1822, while accompanying her husband on a trip to visit a patient in Sussex, England. She noticed something glinting by the side of the road.
Dr. Gideon Mantell formally published his findings on February 10^th, 1825, when he presented a paper on the remains to the Royal Society of London. In this paper he described several prehistoric teeth from the Wealden district of East Sussex and named the prehistoric animal - Iguanodon, meaning "iguana tooth". In 1883, the holotype specimen of Iguanodon bernissartensis became one of the first ever dinosaur skeletons mounted for display, after over 30 relatively complete skeletons of Iguanodon were discovered by miners digging at 322 metres below the surface near the town of Bernissart, Belgium in 1878.

Stegodon

Stegodon is primarily an Asiatic group of mammutid origin.

Stegodon on stamp of Malaysia 2025, MiNr.: , Scott:

This family is believed to have evolved during the Middle Miocene, nearly 15 million years ago and became extinct by the Late Pleistocene about 30,000 - 40,000 years ago.
Stegodon appears to be transitional forms between true mastodons and true elephants. Like elephants, Stegodon were likely good swimmers. Their fossils are frequently found on Asian islands, even during periods of low sea level in the cold phases of the Pleistocene, were not connected to the Asian mainland by land bridges..

Note: the first stamp featuring prehistoric animals, issued by India was released in 1951 to commemorate the "Centenary of Geological Survey of India", depicted a pair of Stegodon.

A general evolutionary trend in large mammals on islands is island dwarfism. The smallest dwarf species, Stegodon sondaari, found in 900,000 year old layers on the Indonesian island of Flores, had an estimated body weight of 300 kg, smaller than a water buffalo.
A medium- to large-sized stegodont, Stegodon florensis, with a body weight of about 850 kg, appeared about 850,000 years ago and later evolved into a dwarf form, Stegodon florensis insularis. The latter was contemporaneous with the hominin Homo floresiensis, discovered in 2003, and disappeared approximately 12,000 years ago.

Malaysia’s first Stegodon fossil is a juvenile cheek tooth, was discovered in 2020 by a multidisciplinary team from Universiti Malaya and the Paleontological Society of Malaysia. The team was led by Dr. Ros Fatihah Muhammad from the Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, and Mr. Lim Tze Tshen, a vertebrate paleontologist and zooarchaeologist from the Paleontological Society of Malaysia. The find was made in a limestone cave in Kinta Valley Geopark, Gopeng, Perak, following information received from the cave conservation group, Kinta Valley Watch.

The first of Stegodon issued by India in 1951, MiNr.: 218, Scott: 232.

During a routine cave exploration in Gopeng on July 26^th, 2020, members of the Kinta Valley Watch group discovered a peculiar object approximately 70 cm above the cave floor. After examining photographs and inspecting the object in situ within its surrounding sediments, and following consultations with several experts from the Geological Society of Malaysia, the find was identified as a Stegodon cheek tooth.

The tooth, depicted on the lower portion of the stamp, was found embedded in cave sediments estimated to be between 30,000 and 80,000 years old. Dental analysis suggests it belonged to a young Stegodon, likely under two years of age. According to the Geological Society of Malaysia, this fossil, along with related geological evidence, can help address key research questions about the evolution and migration of mammals, as well as their adaptations to environmental changes in this region during the Quaternary Period. Given its strategic position between mainland and island Southeast Asia, Peninsular Malaysia likely served as a crucial migration corridor for prehistoric land mammals and early humans.

Giant Pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica)

The Giant Pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica) is an extinct species of pangolin that was native to Asia.
Unlike its modern relatives, the Giant Pangolin was remarkably large, estimates suggest it may have reached lengths of up to 3 meters, making it nearly 2.5 times the size of the living Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica). Despite its size, this ancient pangolin likely shared similar habits, such as feeding on ants and termites, and was well-adapted to the dense tropical forests that once covered much of Borneo.

Giant Pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica) on stamp of Malaysia 2025, MiNr.: , Scott:

The living Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica), on stamp of Malaysia 2019, MiNr.: 2522, Scott: 1826.

Bones of a single Giant Pangolin were discovered in Niah Cave, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, Malaysia, between 1954 and 1958. This fossil, the thigh and arm bones, are depicted on the lower portion of the stamp. Additional fossils of the Giant Pangolin were later uncovered during excavations in the 1960s.
The bones were first identified in 1960 by Dutch paleontologist Dr. Dirk Albert Hooijer (1919 – 1993), who specialized in prehistoric pangolins of Southeast Asia.

Dirk Albert Hooijer (1919–1993) was a prominent Dutch paleontologist known for his extensive work on fossil mammals, particularly in Southeast Asia. He specialized in prehistoric proboscideans (elephants and their relatives), rhinoceroses, and primates. Hooijer worked at the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (now Naturalis Biodiversity Center) in Leiden and published widely on fossils from Indonesia, Malaysia, and beyond. His research helped shape understanding of Pleistocene fauna in the region, including contributions to the study of Stegodon and the extinct Giant Pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica).

Hooijer compared the Sarawak fossils with specimens previously found in Java, Indonesia. Based on their similarities, he classified the Sarawak specimens as Manis palaeojavanica, a species first described in 1907 by another renowned Dutch paleontologist Eugene Dubois.

Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois (1858 – 1940) was a Dutch geologist and paleoanthropologist best known for discovering Pithecanthropus erectus, now classified as Homo erectus, also known as "Java Man." His ground-breaking work in Indonesia marked the first intentional search for human ancestors based on evolutionary theory. While Dubois did not work directly in Malaysia, his research had an important influence on the study of Southeast Asian paleontology more broadly.
One of his notable contributions to the fossil record relevant to Malaysia was the first scientific description of the extinct giant pangolin, Manis palaeojavanica, in 1907. Dubois’s classification provided the taxonomic foundation for later researchers, such as Dr. Dirk Hooijer, to identify and compare fossil remains from Malaysia and Indonesia, highlighting the prehistoric faunal connections across Sundaland.

The fossils were found in cave sediments estimated to be between 32,000 and 40,000 years old. These findings place the remains in the Late Pleistocene, the same period during which prehistoric humans lived in the cave. It is possible that they hunted the Giant Pangolins. The morphological similarities supported the classification of the Niah Cave specimens as Manis palaeojavanica, a now-extinct species that once ranged across Sundaland, a prehistoric landmass that connected parts of present-day Southeast Asia. The presence of the Giant Pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica) in both Java (Indonesia) and Borneo (Malaysia) supports the theory that prehistoric land bridges allowed for the migration of species across Sundaland during periods of lowered sea levels.

The Niah Cave site has proven to be a treasure trove of prehistoric biodiversity. In addition to the Giant pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica) fossils, researchers have unearthed remains of other large mammals such as tigers, tapirs, and rhinoceroses. The co-occurrence of these species suggests that Borneo's ancient ecosystem supported a variety of Megafauna and maintained forested conditions throughout much of the Pleistocene. Furthermore, the discovery of both giant and modern pangolin remains within the same strata indicates that they may have coexisted for a time. This overlap provides valuable insights into species turnover and extinction dynamics influenced by environmental change or human activity.

Niah Cave, the oldest known human settlement in East Malaysia and the site of many prehistoric animals discoveries, including the Giant Pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica), was featured on Malaysia’s 2019 Souvenir-Sheet, MiNr.: Bl. 268 (2536), Scott: 1839.

Tiger (Panthera tigris)

Malaysia’s prehistoric fossil record shows that tigers (Panthera tigris) once roamed the region during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Today, wild tigers still survive in Peninsular Malaysia. However, recent surveys estimate that fewer than 150 Malayan tigers (Panthera tigris jacksoni) remain in the wild.

Tiger (Panthera tigris) on stamp of Malaysia 2025, MiNr.: , Scott: .	Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni) and Korean tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) on joint-issue (with South Korea) stamp of Malaysia 2010, MiNr.: 1704-1705, Scott: 1283a-b.

In contrast, ancient tiger populations on the island of Borneo (East Malaysia) are now extinct. Nevertheless, the tiger features prominently in local folklore and traditions among several Bornean ethnic groups. Tiger parts, including skins and canine teeth, have also been found in the possession of interior communities. Additionally, its presence has also been attested by unsubstantiated sight records.
Local indigenous traditions, including tiger-themed amulets and motifs, further support the notion of a long-standing tiger presence.

A canine tooth from a young tiger, shown in the lower portion of the stamp, was discovered at Niah Cave. The tooth dated to approximately 13,000 and 3,000 years ago. It was found among around 750,000 bone fragments excavated between 1954 and 1966, by a team from the Sarawak Museum, led by Tom Harrisson, the museum's curator.
Although Dr. Dirk Albert Hooijer was not directly involved in the excavation, he played an important role in analyzing the fossil remains. In 1963, Dr. Hooijer identified the specimen as the upper canine tooth of a young tiger (Panthera tigris). Today, this tooth is part of the collection of the Paleontological Department at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands.
However, the presence of this tiger tooth in Neolithic sediments was not enough to confirm that tigers were part of Borneo’s native fauna. Tiger teeth have long held cultural or ornamental value, and could have been transported over great distances, even in prehistoric times. Ancient trade networks are known to have connected island Southeast Asia with the mainland. Some researchers suggest that even a live tiger cub might have been brought to Borneo through these trade routes.

It was not until 2007 that paleontologists found and described additional tiger (Panthera tigris) fossils on the island of Borneo, including metacarpal bone fragments. The discovery provided firm evidence that tigers did indeed inhabit Borneo during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (approximately 126,000 - 8,200 years ago). The reason for the tiger's extinction on Borneo, however, remains unknown.

Products and associated philatelic items

FDC	Mini-Sheet set	Example of circulated cover

First-Day-of-Issue Postmarks
Most of the First Day Covers (FDCs) featuring the "Fossil Discoveries in Malaysia" stamps were cancelled with the First Day of Issue postmark from Kuala Lumpur. However, postmarks with the same design were also available at approximately 90 other locations across Malaysia. Notably, three of these postmarks were issued in locations near where the fossils of the prehistoric animals depicted on the stamps were discovered.
	Fossils of Stegodon were discovered in the Kinta Valley Geopark. There is no post office located within the geopark area. The postmark was available at the Ipoh General Post Office (GPO Ipoh).	Fossils of the Giant Pangolin and Tiger were discovered in Niah Cave at Gua Niah. “Gua Niah” refers to the Niah Caves, a significant archaeological and prehistoric site in Malaysia. There is no post office at the cave site itself, the postmark was available at the Kuching General Post Office (Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo)	A fossil of an Iguanodon was discovered at Mount Gagau (Gunung Gagau). Gunung Gagau is not a city—it is a mountain located in Peninsular Malaysia, near the border of the states of Terengganu, Pahang, and Kelantan. The postmark was available at the Kuala Terengganu General Post Office.

References

Amazon: USA, UK, DE

• Technical details and official press release:
  Official Brochure, Collector's Folder, MYFDC, Borneo Post.
• Iguanodon:
  Wikipedia, The Borneo Post, UKM.
  "Ornithischian dinosaurs in Southeast Asia: a review with palaeobiogeographic implications", by Manitkoon, Sita ; Deesri, Uthumporn ; Warapeang, Prapasiri ; Nonsrirach, Thanit ; Chanthasit, Phornphen. DOI: 10.3897/fr.26.e93456
• Stegodon:
  Wikipedia, Universiti Malaya, Selangor Journal.
  Geological Society of Malaysia: "First discovery of Stegodon (Proboscidea) in Malaysia", published in Warta Geologi, Vol. 46, No. 3, December 2020, pp. 196–198. DOI : https://doi.org/10.7186/wg463202004
• Giant Pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica):
  Wikipedia, Dayak Daily, Sarawak Museum, Malaysian Nature Society.
  Philip J. Piper et al. (2007). "New Discoveries of an Extinct Giant Pangolin (Manis cf. Palaeojavanica Dubois) at Niah Cave, Sarawak, Borneo: Biogeography, Palaeoecology and Taxonomic Relationships". The Sarawak Museum Journal, LXIII (84): 185-197
• Tiger (Panthera tigris):
  Wikipedia, Dayak Daily,
  Piper, P. J.; Rabett, Earl of Cranbrook, R. J. (2007). "Confirmation of the presence of the tiger Panthera tigris (L.) in Late Pleistocene and Holocene Borneo". Malayan Nature Journal. 59 (3): 259–267.
  
• Niah Cave:
  Wikipedia,
• Dirk Albert Hooijer:
  Wikipedia.
• Eugene Dubois:
  Wikipedia.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice from Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, for his help finding information about the prehistoric animals depicted on the stamps, sharing a scan of circulated cover from his collection and for reviewing the draft page and his valuable comments.

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