Educational elephant centric information plus fun and games.

Elephant Evolution

Palaeomastodon (extinct)

Not directly descended from Moeritherium, but farther up the evolutionary tree is the palaeomastodon. (Greek for ancient mastodon) While one might not recognize a Moeritherium as an elephant ancestor, the palaeomastodon would be immediately suspected. The nose is elongated and probably could be described as a small trunk. The incisors are much more enlarged than the moeritherium and there are the beginnings of lower jaw tusk as well. Palaeomastodon, measuring 6.5 ft. at the shoulders, is usually described as the earliest elephant-like proboscidean. They lived from about 30-34 million years ago.

Gomphotheres (extinct)

Gomphotheres includes the most diverse and successful group of proboscideans overall. This is partly because this group had become the catch all classification for elephant ancestors and relatives. There is still some controversy over which species actually belong to this classification. Most gomphotheres were about 6-7 feet tall at the shoulders, but others reached a height of nearly 10 feet. Most gomphotheres had tusks in both upper and lower jaw, while others only possessed the upper jaw tusk. The earliest gomphotheres are believed to have appeared about 20 million years ago and lasted until 1 million years ago.

Mastodons (extinct)

Contrary to popular belief, mastodons are not that closely related to mammoths. Mastodons descended from early gomphotheres and belong to the family Mammutidae. Mammoths belong to the family Elephantidae and evolved farther up the evolutionary tree. Both of these animals were similar in external appearances, however the mastodons were stockier and heavier framed with more of a flattened head than the mammoths. Part of the reason for the confusion is mastodons existed from 20 million years ago to just 10000 years ago, encompassing the period when mammoths roamed the earth. Both inhabiting the same regions.

Primelephas (extinct)

Primelephas is the oldest ancestor in the family Elephantidae. This is the family of our modern living Asian and African species and also the extinct mammoths. It possessed two sets of tusks; upper jaw and lower jaw and lived 7-5 million years ago.

Mammoths (extinct)

From Primelephas, elephant evolution seemed to divide into two branches. One branch evolving into Loxodonta (African elephants) and the other evolving into Elephas (Asian elephants) and Mammuthus (mammoths). Mammoths lived from 2 million years ago to 8000 years ago. They were huge animals standing 10-12 feet high at the shoulders. They had a massive set of tusks and long dense hair suitable for cold climates. Their fossils have been found on all continents except for Australia and South America. Drawings of mammoths have been found in caves, suggesting early man was familiar with this elephant ancestor. Mammoths are probably the best known and best studied of all elephant forebearers because of well preserved, frozen carcasses found in Alaska and Siberia.

Modern elephants

That leads us to the three surviving proboscidean species; Loxodonta africana, Loxodonta cyclotis, and Elephas maximus. All evolved in Africa but the Asian elephant later migrated to Eurasia.

• Genus Loxodonta contains three species:
  • africana africana (Cape elephant)
  • cyclotis (Forest elephant)
  • africana oxyotis (African steppe elephant)

• Genus Elephas contains four species:
  • maximus bengalensis (Indian elephant)
  • maximus hirsutus (Malayan elephant)
  • maximus maximus (Ceylon elephant)
  • maximus sumatranus (Sumatran elephant)

These are all that's left of the diverse and prolific proboscideans.

Conclusion

The Proboscidea order has over 50 million years contained over 350 species. Today only three major species remain. It has been said that the high specialization combined with the continued increase in size and weight, contributed to the demise of a lot of the species. Sudden changes in the environment made it difficult for highly specialized animals to adapt. This coupled with a slow and low reproductive rate could mean disaster to some species.