Proboscidea

(′prō·bə′sid·ē·ə)

(vertebrate zoology) An order of herbivorous placental mammals characterized by having a proboscis, incisors enlarged to become tusks, and pillarlike legs with five toes bound together on a broad pad.

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Elephants

(Elephantidae)

Class: Mammalia

Order: Proboscidea

Family: Elephantidae

Number of families: 1

Thumbnail description
The largest living land animals, entirely herbivorous, characterized by the presence of a proboscis (trunk) and greatly elongated incisor teeth (tusks)

Size
Height at shoulder 6.5–13 ft (2–4 m); weight 2.2–7.7 tons (2–7 tonnes)

Number of genera, species
2 genera; 2 species (3 according to some authorities)

Habitat
Forest, savanna, and semi-desert

Conservation status
Endangered: 2 species

Distribution
Southern and Southeast Asia; Africa south of the Sahara

Resources

Books:

Buss, Irven O. Elephant Life: Fifteen Years of High Population Density. Ames IA: Iowa State University Press, 1990.

Delort, Robert. The Life and Lore of the Elephant. London: Thames and Hudson; New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992.

Eltringham, S.K., ed. The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Elephants. New York: Crescent Books, 1991.

Lister, Adrian, and Paul Bahn. Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age. London: Marshall Editions, 2000.

Moss, Cynthia. Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family. University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Payne, Katy. Silent Thunder: The Hidden Voice of Elephants. Phoenix: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1999.

Shoshani, Jeheskel, and Pascal Tassy, eds. The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and their Relatives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Shoshani, Jeheskel, ed. Elephants. London: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Periodicals:

Eggert, Lori S., et al. "The Evolution and Phylogeography of the African Elephant Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequence and Nuclear Microsatellite markers." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269 (2002): 1993–2006.

Fleischer, Robert C., et al. "Phylogeography of the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) Based on Mitochondrial DNA." Evolution 55 (2001): 1882–1892.

Grubb, Peter, et al. "Living African Elephants Belong to Two Species: Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach, 1797) and Loxodonta cyclotis (Matschie, 1900)." Elephant 2, no.4 (2000): 1–4.

Maglio, Vincent J. "Origin and Evolution of the Elephantidae." Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 63, no. 2 (1973): 1–149.

Thomas, M. G., et al. "Molecular and Morphological Evidence on the Phylogeny of the Elephantidae." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 267 (2000): 2493–2500.

Other:

Elephant Information Repository.

African Elephant Specialist Group (AfESG) of the IUCN.

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana). Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES. Nairobi, 10–20 April 2000.

Elefriends Campaign. Born Free Foundation.

[Article by: Adrian Lister]

An order of placental mammals derived from conservative (that is, primitive or ancient) hooved mammal stock (sometimes informally referred to as condylarths), the oldest members known from Paleocene sediments of North Africa. At one point, proboscideans had a wide distribution, having reached every continent except Australia and Antarctica. They included an astonishing variety of forms. However, currently this order consists of only two forms, belonging to the family Elephantidae: the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Features commonly associated with the proboscideans include large body size, enlarged incisors that form paired tusks (relatively small lower tusks were present in the jaws in the majority of extinct forms in addition), and a proboscis (often referred to informally as a trunk). It is important to realize that the very early forms lacked both significant tusks and a proboscis, though they are still formally considered proboscideans. Unlike most modern hooved mammals which have reduced the toe number to four or more often fewer, proboscideans have retained five toes. Throughout their known history, proboscideans have been strictly herbivorous.

Early elephant evolution mostly occurred in Africa during the Eocene and Oligocene. Near the beginning of the Miocene, proboscideans exited Africa and spread all over Europe and Asia, and by the middle Miocene they reached North America. The proboscideans were highly successful in North America, and between 2 and 1.5 million years ago they entered South America across the Panamanian landbridge. Between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago, most of the world's proboscideans became extinct, with only the African and Asian elephants surviving.

There has been considerable debate by paleontologists as to which animals are actually proboscideans, in part because some members of the order bear little or no superficial resemblance to modern forms. Two suborders in the classification below, Deinotherioidea and Barytherioidea, represent such sometimes disputed groups.

Order Proboscidea

     Suborder: Deinotherioidea

                                        Barytherioidea

                                        Moeritheriodea

                                        Elephantoidea

          Infraorder Mammutoidea

               Family Mammutidae

          Infraorder Gomphotherioidea

               Family: Gomphotheriidae

                                        Elephantidae

The conservative proboscideans consist of the members of the suborders Deinotherioidea, Barytherioidea, and Moeritherioidea. Though these animals are considered to be proboscideans, they mostly bear little or no resemblance to elephants. In fact, such typically elephantine characters as tusks and a proboscis do not strictly define the order Proboscidea. Instead, proboscideans are characterized by relatively obscure features in the teeth, shoulder, and ankle. The relationship of these suborders to the advanced suborder Elephantoidea (which includes the living elephants) is not well understood. See also Elephant; Mammalia.

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IN BRIEF: n. - An order of animals including elephants and mammoths; In some classifications included in the genus Martynia and hence the two taxonomic names for some of the unicorn plants.

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