Genus of mammals
This article is about the elephant genus. For the fictional character Lord Elephas, see
Deep Labyrinth
.
Elephas
is one of two surviving
genera
in the
family
of
elephants
,
Elephantidae
, with one surviving
species
, the
Asian elephant
,
Elephas maximus
.
[1]
Several
extinct
species have been identified as belonging to the genus, extending back to the
Pliocene
or possibly late
Miocene
.
Description
[
edit
]
Species of
Elephas
have distinct bossing of the parieto-occipital region of the skull. The
premaxillae
bones containing the tusks are tapered.
[2]
Evolutionary history
[
edit
]
Relationships of living and extinct elephantids based on DNA, after Palkopoulou et al. 2018.
[3]
Asian elephants share a closer common ancestry with
mammoths
(genus
Mammuthus
) than they do with
African elephants
(
Loxodonta
).
[4]
The oldest species attributed to the genus
Elephas
is
E. nawataensis
from the Late
Miocene
-Early
Pliocene
of Kenya, though the validity of this species and its relationship to
Elephas
has been doubted.
[5]
The oldest species widely attributed to the genus,
Elephas ekorensis
is known from the early-mid Pliocene (5?4.2 million years ago) of East Africa
,
[6]
though the attribution of this species to
Elephas
has been questioned, due to a lack of shared morphological features with later
Elephas
species.
[7]
The oldest record of the genus outside of Africa is
Elephas planifrons
which is known from the Late Pliocene of the Indian subcontinent, around 3.6 million years ago.
[8]
However, the placement of
Elephas planifrons
within the genus has also been questioned.
[9]
The earliest fossils of the ancestor of the modern Asian elephant,
Elephas hysudricus
date to the beginning of the Pleistocene, around 2.6 million years ago, with remains found on the Indian subcontinent.
[10]
Modern Asian elephants had evolved from
E. hysrudicus
by the
Late Pleistocene
.
[11]
Taxonomy
[
edit
]
The scientific name
Elephas
was proposed by
Carl Linnaeus
in 1758 who described the genus and an elephant from
Ceylon
.
[12]
The genus is assigned to the
proboscidean
family
Elephantidae
and is made up of one living and seven extinct species:
[13]
The following Asian elephants were proposed as
extinct
subspecies, but are now considered
synonymous
with the Indian elephant:
[1]
The following
Elephas
species are extinct:
- Elephas beyeri
? dwarf elephant species described from
fossil
remains found in 1911 in
Luzon
, the
Philippines
by
von Konigswald
[15]
- Elephas ekorensis
? described from the Kubi Algi Formation,
Turkana
,
Kenya
,
[13]
dating to the Early Pliocene, one of the oldest species of the genus.
[16]
- Elephas hysudricus
? described from fossil remains found in the
Siwalik hills
by
Falconer
and
Cautley
, 1845,
[17]
thought to be the ancestor of the living Asian elephant.
[18]
- Elephas hysudrindicus
? a fossil elephant of the
Pleistocene
of
Java
and different from
Elephas maximus sondaicus
[19]
- Elephas planifrons
- one of the oldest species, known from the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene of the Indian subcontinent.
[20]
- Elephas platycephalus
a species sometimes recognised from the Pleistocene of India
- Elephas kiangnanensis
a species sometimes recognised from the Early-Middle Pleistocene of China.
[21]
[22]
- Elephas nawataensis
a species of elephant known from the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene of Kenya, though other authors argue that this species is actually a synonym of
Primelephas korotorensis
.
[5]
- Elephas atavus
? known from the Early Pleistocene of Africa, traditionally considered part of
Elephas/Palaeoloxodon recki
While formerly assigned to this genus,
Elephas recki
, the
straight-tusked elephant
E. antiquus
and the
dwarf elephants
E. falconeri
and
E. cypriotes
are now placed in the separate genus
Palaeoloxodon
,
which is more closely related to African elephants.
[23]
However, some material historically assigned to
Elephas recki
, such as
Elephas recki atavus,
may be closely related to true
Elephas,
rather than to
Palaeoloxodon
[24]
"Elephas" celebensis
is now placed in
Stegoloxodon
.
[25]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
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(2005).
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"
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.
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