Elephantidae

Belongs within: Elephantida.
Contains: Elephas.

The Elephantidae, elephants, first appeared in the late Pliocene and are distinguished from earlier proboscideans by their distinctive ‘conveyor-belt’ mode of tooth development. The greatly enlarged adult molars develop sequentially rather than all at once, so that only one or two molars are functional at any one time. As each functioning molar becomes worn down through use, its developing successor moves forward to take its place. In the most basal elephantids, the lower premolars were also present, and the molars retained distinct crowns; in the Elephantinae, the premolars became non-functional and the molar crowns became pressed together into a series of laminae. Except for Stegotetrabelodon and Primelephas, elephantids also lost the lower tusks of earlier proboscideans (Coppens et al. 1978).

Living elephants belong to two genera, Elephas and Loxodonta. The African elephant Loxodonta africana is distinguished from Elephas by its concave back and trunk with two terminal ‘fingers’.

Synapomorphies (from Tassy & Shoshani 1988): basicranium elevated; loss of enamel band on upper tusks; molars with five or more lophids, becoming laminae.

<==Elephantidae [Stegotetrabelodontinae]
    |--Stegotetrabelodon Petrocchi 1941TS88, CM78
    |    |--*S. syrticus Petrocchi 1941 [incl. S. lybicus Petrocchi 1941, S. sahabianus Petrocchi 1943]CM78
    |    `--S. orbus Maglio 1970CM78
    `--+--Stegodibelodon Coppens 1972TS88, CM78
       |    `--*S. schneideri Coppens 1972CM78
       `--ElephantinaeCM78
            |--Primelephas Maglio 1970CM78
            |    |--*P. gomphotheroides Maglio 1970CM78
            |    `--P. korotorensis (Coppens 1965) [=Stegodon korotorensis]CM78
            `--+--+--ElephasFS15
               |  `--Loxodonta Cuvier 1825FS15, CM78
               |       |--*L. africana (Blumenbach 1797) (see below for synonymy)CM78
               |       |    |--L. a. africanaB84
               |       |    `--L. a. cyclotisB84
               |       |--L. adaurora Maglio 1970CM78
               |       `--L. atlantica (Pomel 1879) [=Elephas atlanticus; incl. E. pomeli Arambourg 1952]CM78
               |            |--L. a. atlanticaCM78
               |            `--L. a. zulu (Scott 1907) [=Elephas (Loxodon) zulu]CM78
               `--Mammuthus Burnett 1830FS15, AC98 (see below for synonymy)
                    |  i. s.: ‘Archidiskodon’ gromoviD07
                    |         M. jeffersoniD07
                    |         M. lamarmoraeD07
                    |--M. subplanifrons (Osborn 1928) (see below for synonymy)CM78
                    `--+--M. africanavus (Arambourg 1952) [=Elephas africanavus, Loxodonta africanava]CM78
                       `--+--M. meridionalis (Nesti 1825) (see below for synonymy)CM78
                          |--+--*M. primigenius (Blumenbach 1799)CM78 [=Elephas primigeniusFP64, Mammonteus primigeniusCM78]
                          |  `--M. armeniacus [=Parelephas armeniacus; incl. M. trogontherii]CM78
                          `--+--M. columbiCM78 [=Elephas primigenius columbiFP64, C77, Parelephas columbiCM78]
                             |--M. exilis Stock & Furlong 1928FS15, AC98
                             `--M. imperatorCM78 [=Archidiskodon imperatorCM78, Elephas imperatorFP64]

*Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach 1797) [=Elephas africanus; incl. L. atlantica angammensis Coppens 1965, L. prima Dart 1929]^CM78

Mammuthus Burnett 1830^{FS15, AC98} [incl. Archidiskodon Pohlig 1888^AC98, Cheirolites von Meyer 1848^AC98, Dicyclotherium Géoffroy-Saint-Hilaire 1837^AC98, Mammonteus Camper in Osborn 1924^AC98, Metarchidiskodon Osborn 1934^AC98, Paraelephas Osborn 1924^AC98]

Mammuthus meridionalis (Nesti 1825) [=Elephas meridionalis, Archidiskodon meridionalis; incl. E. moghrebiensis Arambourg 1970]^CM78

Mammuthus subplanifrons (Osborn 1928) [=Archidiskodon subplanifrons; incl. A. andrewsi Dart 1929, A. planifrons nyanzae MacInnes 1942, Mammuthus (Archidiskodon) scotti Meiring 1955]^CM78

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[AC98] Alcover, J. A., X. Campillo, M. Macias & A. Sans. 1998. Mammal species of the world: additional data on insular mammals. American Museum Novitates 3248: 1–29.

[B84] Barnes, R. F. W. 1984. Elephants. In: Macdonald, D. (ed.) All the World’s Animals: Hoofed Mammals pp. 12–21. Torstar Books: New York.

[C77] Cope, E. D. 1877. Report upon the extinct Vertebrata obtained in New Mexico by parties of the expedition of 1874. Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian 4 (2): i–iv, 1–370.

[CM78] Coppens, Y., V. J. Maglio, C. T. Madden & M. Beden. 1978. Proboscidea. In: Maglio, V. J., & H. B. S. Cooke (eds) Evolution of African Mammals pp. 336–367. Harvard University Press: Cambridge (Massachusetts).

[D07] Dixon, D. 2007. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Hermes House: London.

[FS15] Faurby, S., & J.-C. Svenning. 2015. A species-level phylogeny of all extant and late Quaternary extinct mammals using a novel heuristic-hierarchical Bayesian approach. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 84: 14–26.

[FP64] Fisher, J., & R. T. Peterson. 1964. The World of Birds: A comprehensive guide to general ornithology. Macdonald: London.

[TS88] Tassy, P., & J. Shoshani. 1988. The Tethytheria: elephants and their relatives. In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods vol. 2. Mammals pp. 283–315. Clarendon Press: Oxford.