The story
Among the earliest known proboscideans, the group that includes elephants, mastodons and mammoths, come from North Africa. Phosphatherium escuilliei, named by Emmanuel Gheerbrant in 1996 from phosphate beds at Ouled Abdoun in Morocco, lived about 55 million years ago. It was about the size of a large rock hyrax and had no trunk or tusks, yet its teeth show that it belongs to the line that leads to elephants. Africa was an island continent then, and Phosphatherium and its kin evolved in isolation there.
Over the next tens of millions of years the group grew in size and variety. Moeritherium, from the Fayum in Egypt around 37 million years ago, was a pig-sized swamp dweller with a short trunk. Later forms such as Barytherium and Deinotherium were much larger, and some developed tusks of unusual shape. The long trunk is a flexible nose and upper lip, which let big animals feed from the ground without kneeling. Proboscideans eventually spread across the world and were found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. Today only three species of elephant remain.
Why it mattered
- Elephants start from small animals, so large body size and the trunk are late, gradual inventions.
- Their African origin explains why Africa has the world's most varied large-mammal fauna.
- Later mastodons, gomphotheres and mammoths descend from this root.
Sources
- An early, rabbit-sized elephant relative from Morocco National Geographic
- Ten exceptional ancient elephants Smithsonian Magazine
- Nouvelles donnees sur Phosphatherium escuilliei Geodiversitas
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