Proboscidea
| Proboscidea Temporal range: late Palaeocene – Recent
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| African elephant | |
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| Order: | Proboscidea Illiger, 1811
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Proboscidea (meaning "trunked beast") is an order containing only one familiy of living animals, Elephantidae, the elephants, with three living species (African forest elephant, African bush elephant, and Asian elephant).[1]
During the period of the last ice age there were more species. They included a number of species of the elephant-like mammoths and mastodons.
The oldest proboscidean dates from the early Palaeogene period, over 50 million years ago. The evolution of the elephant-like animals mainly concerned the proportions of the cranium and jaw and the shape of the tusks and molar teeth. These were adaptations to various kinds of vegetable. food
Families
[change | change source]Present-day elephants are the survivors of a once larger and more varied family.
- Elephantidae
- †Gomphotheriidae
- †Mammutidae
- †Stegodontidae
- †Barytheriidae
- †Deinotheriidae
- †Moeritheriidae
- †Numidotheriidae
- †Palaeomastodontidae
- †Phiomiidae
References
[change | change source]- ↑ ↑ Shoshani, Jeheskel; Wilson, Don E. and Reeder, DeeAnn M. (eds) 2005. Mammal species of the world. 3rd ed, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols, pp. 90-91. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0
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