Palaeoloxodon

Taxobox

name = Palaeoloxodon
Fossil range:Pleistocene
Fossil Status

regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Proboscidea
familia = Elephantidae
genus = "Elephas"
subgenus = "Palaeoloxodon"
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "E. (P.) antiquus"
"E. (P.) cypriotes"
"E. (P.) falconeri"
"E. (P.) namadicus"
"E. (P.) naumanni"
others

Palaeoloxodon is an extinct subgenus of elephants, containing the various species of straight-tusked elephant. Its species' remains have been found in Bilzingsleben, Germany; Cyprus; Japan; Sicily; Malta; and recently in England during the excavation of the second Channel Tunnel. The English discovery, in northwest Kent, dated c. 400,000 ybp, was of a single adult; associated with it were Palaeolithic stone butchering tools of the type used by "Homo heidelbergensis" (BBC News).

"Palaeoloxodon" belongs to the genus "Elephas" and so is more closely related to the Asian Elephant than the Asian is to the two species of African elephants in genus "Loxodonta". "Palaeoloxodon" is known informally as the "straight-tusked elephant" because of the straight tusks of "Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus". The last mainland European "Palaeoloxodon" faced extinction 30,000 years ago. The Japanese species survived possibly a little longer afterwards. The last straight-tusked elephants were the Mediterranean dwarf species, which died out 8,000 years ago - possibly at the hands of human hunters and introduced predators.

Some notable species are:
* "Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus" (England and Germany), was twice the size of a modern African elephant
* "E. (P.) cypriotes" (Cyprus), dwarf elephant.
* "E. (P.) falconeri" (Sicily and Malta), dwarf elephant.
* "E. (P.) namadicus" (Asia)
* "E. (P.) naumanni" (Southern Japan), dwarf elephant and possible subspecies of "E. namadicus".

Mythology

The belief in Cyclopes may be originated in "falconeri" skulls found in Sicily. If one does not know what an elephant looks like, the place where the trunk is placed on the skull can be mistaken for a giant eyesocket.

References

* [http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/Metazoa/Deuterostoma/Chordata/Synapsida/Eutheria/Proboscidea/Elephantidae.htm#Elephas Elephantidae phylogeny]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5128892.stm BBC News, " Early signs of elephant butchers"] , 30 June 2006