elephant
Everyone knows that the largest mammal on land is the elephant, and throughout evolutionary history, elephants are not all as large as we see today, and like many animals, the elephant family once had a glorious past. But unfortunately, there are only two species of elephants today, Asian elephants and African elephants, the evolution of elephants is quite complex, there is a lot of controversy, let's put aside the controversy for the time being, to get a good understanding of this magical and ancient species.
Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx, originated about 40 million years ago, from The Egyptian Lake Morris, small in size, similar in size to the modern Malay tapir, it is generally believed that the most primitive ancestor of elephants is Archaeopteryx, but Archaeopteryx is not actually the ancestor of elephants, but may only be an early extinct proboscis side branch.
Pristometal elephant
Archaeopteryx, which lived about 36 million years ago, derives the name from the fact that on the teeth of such elephants, there are pairs of papillary protrusions, archaeopteryx and Archaeopteryx lived in the same era and in the same region, but they ate different foods, at this time the mastodons have evolved a thick body, columnar limbs, and a less long but more developed nose.
Fear
Dinosaurs, which lived about 18 million years ago, have a smaller head, a nose that has begun to lengthen, no teeth in the upper jaw, a pair of curved hook-shaped fangs on the lower jaw, male dinosaurs generally have a shoulder height of nearly 5 m, an estimated weight of more than 15.6 tons, in fact, they are only a side branch in the evolutionary history of proboscis, which has little to do with modern elephants.
Incarcerated elephants
Incision elephants, about 15 million years ago began to appear, the size of the modern elephant, their upper tusks protruding downwards, the lower jaw has a pair of juxtaposed tusks, the intutarius first appeared in The Mesocene Africa, in the Pliocene decline, into the Pleistocene after the eventual extinction, its extinction may be the cause of mammoth, saber-toothed elephants and other elephants competition and exclusion.
Saber-toothed elephant
Saber-toothed elephant, about 12 million years ago, about 4-8 meters tall, is the largest species of proboscis, living in Asia and Africa, China's saber-toothed elephant fossils are very many, the number of species is also relatively large, there are Shi's saber-toothed elephant and oriental saber-toothed elephant, in January 1973, in Gansu Province, excavated a saber-toothed elephant fossil, about 4 meters tall, about 8 meters long, incisors 3.03 meters long, is one of the largest known individual saber-toothed elephants in the world.
Shovel tooth elephant
Shoveltooth elephants, appeared about 10 million years ago, widely distributed in various continents such as Europe, Asia and Africa, and were numerous, until the Pliocene was completely extinct 4 million years ago, belonging to an elephant of the family Edophoridae, with a peculiar appearance, shovel-toothed elephants with a short and fat body, a pair of tusks on the upper jaw, and the lower and lower incisors protrude forward and expand very exaggeratedly, like a wide shovel, living on the edge of rivers and lakes, cutting and shoveling plants in shallow water with shovel teeth, and then relying on the long nose to help push food into the mouth.
Sword prism
The sword prism, which appeared about 7 million years ago, is generally considered to be the earliest ancestor of the true elephant class, it may have originated from a certain kind of indigodge in Africa, and later distributed to Europe and Asia, they have a tall body, the lower jaw is shortened, but the lower incisors are still very long, plus a pair of upper jaws, a total of 4 tusks.
American mastodon
The American mastodon, which appeared about 3.7 million years ago, whose fossils are distributed from Alaska to New England, and from Colorado to southern California in the United States, are slightly smaller than mammoths, covered in hair, and their tusks begin to bend, but they are still less developed than mammoths, and they did not go extinct until about 8,000 years ago.
Mammoth
Mammoths, which appeared about 5 million years ago, also known as longieds, are very famous, mammoths are animals adapted to cold climates, covered with thick long hairs, with curved spiral tusks, are the most familiar ancient elephants, the last Siberian mammoths were extinct around 2000 BC, when Egypt established the pyramids.
In the history of human evolution, humans have used mammoths as food, fur into cold clothing, with global warming, the permafrost ice and snow in northern Russia gradually melted, resulting in some mammoth corpses hidden under the ice layer have been unearthed, in the permafrost layer of northern Siberia and north America's Alaska Peninsula, have found a complete individual with flesh, mammoth classification is many, there are true mammoths, southern mammoths, steppe mammoths and pygmy mammoths.
Ancient rhombus.d'
Ancient rhodontates, which lived about 10,000 years ago, are generally believed to be closest to modern Asian elephants, and paleo-odonts are probably the largest elephants in history, with fossils found speculating that the largest estimate can reach 4.5 meters, and adults can weigh up to 10-14 tons.
African elephant
Living elephants, that is, modern Asian elephants and African elephants, they live in tropical and subtropical jungles, Asian elephants are mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and South Asia, China's wild elephants are only distributed in the southern part of Yunnan Province and Myanmar, Laos adjacent border areas, the number is very rare, belongs to China's first-class protected animals, and African elephants are the largest existing terrestrial mammals, slightly larger than Asian elephants, can be distinguished by large as the ears of pu fan and Asian elephants.
ivory
For many years, ivory has been sought after by greedy humans, in order to meet this demand, many wild elephants have been poached and killed, the ivory trade is even more jaw-dropping, although many countries have banned the ivory trade, but the smuggling of ivory on the black market is still rampant, and the process behind the implementation of the international anti-poaching operation is quite complicated, if according to the existing trend, do not take measures, elephants, the largest mammal on land, may face extinction within 15 years, no trade without harm, May we human beings wake up from the lessons of the past and protect our only human partners.