The Evolution of the Elephant

one of the most spectacular animals on the planet alive today are the elephants they look like nothing else on earth with their assortment of unique features including their trunks tusks and sheer titanic size elephants are one of the most recognizable animals in the present era but their relatives have been a staple part of mammalian fauna since shortly after the extinction of the dinosaurs tracking the evolution of the elephant is an interesting challenge not because of the limited nature of its relationships like with other animal groups i've covered on this channel but in fact the opposite the order that the elephant is part of probacidia represents a vast network of different lineages of mammals that evolved and flourished at varying points in the cenozoic my goal with this video is to do my best to address as many of these lines as i can while also painting a thorough picture of elephant evolution probocidia is part of an order known as afroetheria i've covered this group in another video but in short it's a group of african mammals that first emerged during the cretaceous and saw its main groups evolved back when the continent was still isolated from the rest of the world the earliest basal pro-basidian known to the fossil record dates back 60 million years ago in the paley scene of morocco this animal is known as aeretherium and was close to the ancestors of both elephants and serenians being around the size of a rabbit at around one foot in height this animal would have been a stark contrast to the giants of today fossil evidence of aerotherium is sparse but what little does exist sheds light on its relationships to other mammals although its dentition still contains some primitive features such as canine teeth it also contained other aspects closer to proboscideans this includes an enlarged first incisor this incisor would become the groundwork for tusks in the future additionally the eyes of the animal were placed further up on the skull similar to the orbital position of other probesidians phosphatherium represented the next step in elephant evolution first appearing 56 million years ago in the late paley scene of morocco this dog-sized pro-basidian showed more similarities to future members of the order such as having cross-crested patterns on its molars these teeth also showed scratches indicative of a varied diet of plants some of which were likely aquatic as a result of this creature's more amphibious lifestyle while phosphatherium likely didn't possess a trunk it did have a longer snout that similar to aerotherium's incisors would only grow in size through further evolution another similar semi-aquatic probesidion could be found east of the prior animals in eoc in egypt around 37 million years ago this creature known as mar ethereum is known from extremely well-preserved complete skeletons found near the pyramids of giza more ethereum is known to have had a round barrel-shaped body as well as short legs a body plan similar to those of hippos this would have made walking on land awkward for the creature but aided in aquatic locomotion as for its elephantine features more ethereum's incisors formed short tusks and it also had a longer snout that could have helped to grasp aquatic plants it should be stated that there is debate as to whether or not these three animals as well as other similar paleocene and eocene creatures like seleumia were true proboscidians or simply more basal probe acidians some researchers even argued that the creatures could be paleocene tethertheirs that led to other lines of animals such as serenians and the extinct arsonoa theories however following phosphatherium and more ethereum this order saw its first true radiation into two main branches of course one of these branches led to the elephants we know today but the other was a fascinating group that evolved in parallel to the first clade up until the early pleistocene these were the pleisielophanta forms the earliest group of the pleisiella phantom forms was numedithiridae arcanotherium and dalotherium were among the first recorded numitotheres with the latter living in the eocene of morocco 53 million years ago not much is known about these animals with fossils of them being restricted to teeth and jaw bones a much more well understood in a midi theory is nemitherium a provocitan that lived in algeria 51 million years ago during the late eoc this animal's incisors showed signs of further growth and in addition its lower front teeth formed into a scoop shape that would have aided during feeding it also had a taller and more elongated forehead as well as stocky limbs both features found in future provositions it's interesting to note that the aquatic lifestyle present in animals such as more ethereum and phosphatherium was also present in omidithira day and that this lifestyle evolved independently within this group this could have been due to the fact that north africa during this time was far more tropical than it was during the later cenozoic and the proximity of these animals to the ancient tethys ocean berry theridae was a group that evolved during the late eocene and lasted up until the oligocene this family showed far more similarities to later proboscidians with animals such as bare ethereum and oman ethereum reaching much larger sizes and even showing strong traits of sexual dimorphism barytherium literally named heavy beast in greek was one of the largest animals on earth while it was alive sending up to 2 meters at the shoulder and weighing 2 tons this animal showed even more similarities to later proboscideans such as having cross-crested molars a long forehead and even a trunk this last feature has been a point of contention some state that could be as short as the tapir snout and others argue that it could be far longer either way it was clear that the proboscis of this group was probably far longer than that of its ancestors oman ethereum shared much of its physicality with barytherium but it differed in that while the farmer is found in the similar north african local to earlier pro-basidions the latter lived in the arabian peninsula can you guess what country it is found in oh man you figured it out oh brother this guy stinks this was the furthest west pro basidia had gone yet and with eurasia beginning to connect to the african continent the order saw even further western expansion the later legacy brought with it one of the most unique looking of all proboscidens this latest family of the pleisielophanta forms dinotheradae saw an explosion and diversity when it came to body planes and habitat range dinotheridae can be further broken down into two sub-families child gathering and dinothyrone the first family has only one member chilgatherium this animal which can be found in the later legacy of ethiopia is similar to a lot of the creatures we've discussed so far in that it's only known from a few fragmentary teeth however these teeth show enough differences to warrant being separated from the other dinotherese into its own grouping at an estimated only two meters in height and 1.5 tons in weight it was also far smaller than the other animals in this order dinothyrone consists of two genera of proboscideans pro-dynatherium and dinotherium the two are fairly similar in appearance but dinotherium is noticeable for being the larger of the pair this animal clocked in at around four meters or 13 feet tall and could have weighed up to 12 tons this would have made the creature both taller and larger than the african bush elephant dinotherium had a short skull that was a lot flatter than in other probe acidians in addition it also had the large nasal retraction indicative of a long trunk but the real fascinating aspect of the animal's head was in its tusks unlike the elephants we're familiar with dinotherium didn't have any upper tusks rather it had a pair of tusks coming from its lower jaw these tusks extended downwards and could have been used for digging up roots and tubers pulling out branches or any other variety of reasons from their origins in africa species of pro-dine ethereum could be found as far east as india and as far north as austria meanwhile dinotherium could be found from greece all the way up to thailand the elephanta farms are the second main branch of the probe acidian radiation that began during the eocene they first evolved a bit earlier than the pleisielophanta forms during the ladies scene in addition they showed far more diversity in the sheer number of genera and lasted farther into the future with elephants being the modern representatives of this family the first of the elephanta forms is paleomastodon this animal evolved during the eocene and could be found in both africa and the arabian peninsula this creature was 2.5 tons in weight and had a noticeable trunk evidenced by the clear nasal retraction on its skull the animal also had four tusks which like many of its ancestors before it could have been used like shovels to pull up aquatic vegetation as it lived a sort of semi-aquatic lifestyle these tusks alongside its long jaw and flattened forehead were traits that some elephanta forms would retain and even build upon as the cenozoic progressed fiomia shared much in common with paleomastodon from his general morphology to its habitat range its lower tusks were arguably even more shovel or spade-shaped than those of paleomastodon a feature that again would become even more prevalent in later pro-basidions like gomphotheres and ambeladons another elephanta form eritreum evolved during the later lego scene and could be found in eritrea at only about 10 tons it was several times smaller than the later elephanta forms but this genus was notable in having the horizontal tooth displacement that became a stable of animals such as elephants hemi mastodon of the late maya scene saw the furthest western expansion of the elephanta farms up to this point being found as far from its african homeland as pakistan this expansion would only increase with the next most recent division within proba city of the elephanta morpha the first branch of elephanta morpha is composed of the family mammothe or the mastodons these animals evolved at the time of hemi mastodon's extinction at the tail end of the oligocene 28 million years ago the first of the mastodons was losodokodon of the later legacy of kenya which is followed shortly after by iozygadon of the early maya scene kenyan uganda the middle maya scene brought with it an extreme expansion in the range of mastodons more so than any other previously discussed group of pro-basidians their wasino mahmud which while only identified from a single mandible made it as far east as china zygolophodon also evolved around the same time yet while this genus first appeared in africa 19 million years ago within about a million years later it could be found as far east as india china and kazakhstan and as far west as europe and even the united states the most well-known of all mammitudes were the mastodons of the genus mahmud which first evolved during the early pliocene there were a few species of mastodons distributed all throughout north america however the most recognizable of all these species was the american mastodon mammoth americanus in addition there was also the pacific mastodon mahmud pacificus which was recently recognized as its own species this particular animal lived in california up until the pleistocene and was differentiated from its western relative as it had six sacral vertebrae instead of five and a general absence of mandibular tusks mastodons bear striking similarities to more modern proboscians like elephants and mammoths to the point where you'd be forgiven for mistaking the mastodon for a mammoth but there are a few key differences for one mastodons maintain a flatter more horizontal body shape at the top in addition their cheek teeth are unlike those of their later relatives while mammoths and elephants have flattened cheek teeth the cheek teeth of mastodons are composed of several blunt cusps mastodons were typically restricted to forested areas and despite this they were far less common and widespread compared to mammoths although there are reports that an american mastodon or a species very similar to it was found in china in addition to distribution their preference for forest meant that they were not as large as other pro-basidians they seemed to clock out at around 8 tons in weight and 9 feet in height which is definitely not tiny by any means but noticeably smaller than elephants and mammoths mastodons found themselves part of the larger megaphone extinction during the end of the pleistocene however unlike with other mammals where their extinction was most likely due to a variety of factors it's fairly likely that humans were the main cause of their demise the forest that they preferred actually expanded by this time but they ended up coming into contact with humans that entered the continent and saw them as a good source of food unfortunately this clash brought the end for this line and they went extinct around 11 000 years ago ambelladons evolved during the maya scene roughly 16 million years ago similar to fiomia this group had shovel like lower teeth but they turned it up to 11. sir belladon of the united states and archaeo belladonna of egypt were among the first members of this family and had large pairs of tusks in addition to their huge lower jaws these upper tusks would disappear with future members of the group ambaladon and platy beladon represented some of the most derived members of this group as they had lost their upper tusks and grew even larger lower jaws abrasion marks found on these north american shovel tuskers found that they were used for scraping the bark of trees showing that while prior pro-basidians like fiomi or paleomasted i use their lower tusks for scooping up aquatic plant matter that's a long sentence the embellidantes likely fed on leaves twigs and bark there's a bit of debate over the trunks of these later members some believe that they had a flap-like trunk that reached the ends of their lower jaws whereas others believed them to have a more elephantine trunk angela dantoday was a widespread group but died out towards the end of the maya scene the ambella dantoday or at least the north american genera were likely part of the larger end miocene extinction that wiped out many animals such as the american rhinos and other ruminants related to prong orange and giraffes coralofadon today was another family of elephanta forms that first emerged in the miocene and lasted from seven to seven million years ago they were found throughout the old world from africa to eurasia and were known for their long curved tusks recent discoveries posit them as basil to the gomphith ears gomphithyridae was a widely distributed group of elephanta forms that lived from the miocene to the pleistocene although some estimates put it as having originated as early as the later ligocene gomphitherium was one of the earliest gomphotheres having evolved in the maya scene and was found in africa north america and eurasia this creature similar to early ambaladons had two upper tusks in addition to two shovel-shaped lower tusks in addition it was known to have had a flattened skull this general body plan was present in later gamepad years from myo mastodon of china to nath belladon and eubalidon of the us while they were very similar morphologically to the ambelladons they differed in that these tusks were used for feeding on aquatic vegetation instead of plants like leaves this is due to the fact that the habitats of gomphothiers were primarily wetlands and marshes contrasted with the more forested regions and belladons could be found in the differences between the gomphotheres and embellidons would become even more pronounced with the later brevirostry and gomphith ears which saw reduction or outright elimination in their lower tusks rather than looking like ambelladons the later genre of gomphotheres far more resembled mastodons to the point where they were often confused with them beyond physical changes these gomphotheres also began to move from the wetlands to many other types of habitats additionally the gomphotheres were unique in being the only group of pro-basidians to venture into south america migrating from north america after the two continents joined at the end of the pliocene some of these south american gomphotheres were pleisoscine genera such as stegomastodon cuviornus and gnodiomastodon the makeup of the cheek teeth of these gomphotheres such as stegomastodons which were covered in enamel and made up of several bumps and ridges indicated that these animals were likely grazers as a result they likely competed with pleistocene mammoth species in north america which were also known to be grazers to the point where they were driven south the gomphotheres did well in the southern continent however and some of these animals like gnodium mastodon are reported to have survived up until the holocene where they went extinct likely from a combination of human hunting as well as climate change the next branch of probe acidia was elephantoidea and at this point you'd be forgiven for thinking all of these animals were just elephants this group was home to not only our modern day elephants but also the iconic mammoths as well as the enormous paleoloxadon genera animals within this group saw a general shortening of their face and lower jaw as well as developing large crest on the top of their skulls these crests allowed for upper tusks to grow far larger than ever before one family that is known for having truly massive tusks was ankaday anankus a genera that lived from the miocene to the early pleistocene possessed tusks far longer than those of modern day elephants at 4 meters long these enormous upper tusks and small if not non-existent lower tusks were the norm for this family although generals such as tetralophodon still had the ancestral lower tusks stegadontade was an old world probability in family that was very similar to ananka day in having enormous upper tusks like in the genus stegadon stego tetra bella dantene is another group within elephantoidia that retained their lower tusks but rather than them being near vestigial or heavily reduced in size they were close to in size or even outright match the length of their top two tusks stego tetra belladon was an animal emblematic of this trait with a pair of upper and lower tusks that were both around 2.5 meters in length the placement of this group has been a mystery to many scientists some see them as part of stegadon today whereas others see them as creatures that can be placed within the clade elephant today anancadei stugadantade and stegotetrobeladontine thrived from the miocene until the pleistocene but only one family of pro-basidians managed to last all the way into the current era these were the elephantids elephantidae is the most recent family of probisidia containing the elephants and mammoths the first elephant did known to the fossil record as prime elephants of the late miocene prime elephants gave rise to multiple different lineages of elephants the genus laxadonta is one such lineage that split off during the pliocene and gave rise to various species such as loxodon takuke loxidonta exopada and laxodonta atlantica most relative to us however was loxodonto africana the african bush elephant and locks it onto cyclotus the african forest elephant members of this genus such as the african bush elephant differ with an elephantini the group that contains all of these animals at least compared to asian elephants with traits such as their ears being far larger both males and females possessing trunks as well as being more accustomed to browsing rather than grazing paleoloxodon was another genre of elephants that evolved during the pliocene and survived until the holocene epic also known as the straight tusk elephant this widespread genus also gave rise to paleoloxadon pneumaticus which some argue was the largest land mammal of all time i've made a video on this species as well as other members of paleoloxadon so i suggest that you guys take a look to learn more about this genus mammoth was another jenner of probe acidians that evolved during the pliocene roughly 5 million years ago when you think of prehistoric elephant relatives this group is likely the one you have in mind there were a few common characteristics among all mammoths these included large highly spiral tusks much longer forelimbs than hind limbs as well as a generally robust body with a tall cranium and well-structured bone growth for muscle attachment the earliest species of mammoth in the fossil record was the south african mammoth mammoth subplant of franz that evolved in the early pleiades of south africa and malawi this species already began showing some traits indicative of the genus such as a longer femur than tibia and curved tusks from their origins in africa mammoths began rapidly diversifying spreading to all parts of the globe after subplant of france central asia became the next hotbed of mammoth evolution there was the southern mammoth mammoth's murad denalis which evolved in eurasia 2.5 million years ago which would then give rise to the step mammoth shortly after the steppe mammoth mammoth's trigon theory evolved 2 million years ago and was found in the siberian tundra at 13 feet tall and weighed estimates going between 11 and 14 tons is arguable that the step mammoth was the largest among all mammoths the step mammoth was also known to have shared its environment with the woolly mammoth mammoth as primogenius the woolly mammoth is the most recognizable of all cenozoic creatures and one of the most recognizable prehistoric animals that ever lived this creature's range spanned from europe to canada to alaska at around six tons this animal was surprisingly not as heavy as one would assume even being dwarfed by the african elephant however this animal had a far more impressive oily coat which could be 2.5 feet long and was coated in oily gland secretions and helped keep them warm during the frigid ice age many imagined these coats as being brown in color and while they were they could also get quite light with some mammoths even sporting blonde coats there have been some extremely well preserved specimens of the woolly mammoth such as liuba this baby mammoth was found in siberian mudbug she was so well preserved that scientists could even find milk from her mother in her stomach it was thought that the baby died from suffocation in the bog choking from all the mud she kept swallowing i'm not reading this this is too depressing the colombian mammoth mammoth is colombia was a species of mammoth that first appeared in the mid pleistocene 1.5 million years ago and lived until the holocene 11 000 years ago this species has recently been argued to be a result of hybridization of the step mammoth with an early branch of wooly mammoths unlike those mammoths however the colombian mammoth occupied far warmer and more tempered regions being found across north america and the united states mexico canada guatemala among many other countries it's also unlikely that because of the habitats the mammoth could be found in this species probably didn't sport the shaggy coat of its relatives colombian mammoths were known to spend time grooming by rubbing themselves against large boulders this practice would help remove harmful parasites from their skin at 13 feet tall and 10 tons in weight the colombian mammoth was among the largest of all mammoths at this size fully grown adults didn't have to worry about the many predators on the american plains however young were susceptible from attacks from animals such as dire wolves saber-toothed cats or lions another danger for these animals were the tar pits that were common in the western united states these animals would have been found trapped in these pits on numerous occasions and predators looking for an easy meal would find themselves succumbing to the tar as well the bright side is that this has resulted in some extremely well-preserved colombian mammoth specimens on display at areas such as the la brea tar pits in los angeles almost all mammoths went extinct during the end of the last ice age with the colombian mammoth going extinct 11 000 years ago and the woolly mammoth going extinct a bit later on climate change and human hunting were purported as being the main reasons for their demise despite this several species of dwarf mammoths managed to hold on well into the holocene these include the pygmy mammoth mammoth xzilis which survived a bit longer than the colombian mammoth derived from this animal lived in the california channel islands more impressive was the dwarf woolly mammoth of the russian rangel islands which survived until 1650 bc about 4 000 years ago for reference that's about 1 000 years after the first pyramids were built in egypt meaning that mammoth survived well past the dawn of human civilization the last probe city and we'll discuss today is the asian elephant while there are various subspecies of this animal spread all throughout southern asia they're all grouped together within one species elephant maximus whose genus first evolved in the pliocene interestingly enough this species is more closely related to mammoth than it is to its african cousins it shares their domed forehead smaller ears and as a grazer just like they are while we're lucky to have three different species of elephants alive with us today they're by no means widespread all three species of elephants are threatened both the african and asian elephants are endangered and the african forest elephant recently separated into its own species is critically endangered the biggest threat to elephants worldwide is illegal poaching elephants are prized for their ivory tusks which sell for incredibly high prices on the black market another problem for elephants is habitat loss something that dramatically hurts forest and asian elephants which aren't known for surviving on the open plains we can help an elephant conservation by supporting wildlife organizations dedicated to protecting them and not supporting the sale of ivory this includes not buying ivory products of course but also not supporting legislation that would make it easier for the trade of ivory to get into international markets elephants are among the most unique of all earth's creatures and it's important that our remaining species survive as long as possible i for one would not want to live in a world without elephants they are very cool and the baby elephants are also very cute hey everybody thanks for watching my video if you enjoyed it make sure to give it a like make sure to subscribe and comment and all that good stuff before i continue i want to give a big shout out to zw and caviaramiso9 they provided me with a lot of resources and information that really helped make this video possible i want to apologize for how long this video took i didn't anticipate it was going to take around 3 weeks at this point to complete but it's done and that's all that matters so in the future i'm going to try and speed up the progress of my uploads maybe uh maybe once a week is what i want to aim for once again if you guys have video suggestions always make sure to leave them in the comments i always try to look at them and you know try to formulate video ideas off of that but again big shout out to these two guys zw and caviaramiso9 and a big shout out to you guys for making these videos possible and giving me so much support i really do appreciate it you

Channel: Animal Origins

Views: 2,455,162

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Id: I-JMmQ70SXE

Length: 24min 35sec (1475 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 31 2021