Palaeoloxodon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iPalaeoloxodon

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	Elephantidae
Genus:	Elephas
Subgenus:	Palaeoloxodon

Species

Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus
Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) cypriotes
Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) falconeri
Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) naumanni
others

Palaeoloxodon is an extinct subgenus of straight-tusked elephant. Its 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 found in England and Germany and 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.) naumanni (Southern Japan) dwarf elephant.

[edit] 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. (Picture of an elephant skull)