Palaeoloxodon namadicus || Largest ever Elephant species ?
Автор: Extinction - Tales Of Forgotten
Загружено: 2024-07-31
Просмотров: 3170
Palaeoloxodon namadicus is an extinct species of prehistoric elephant known from the early Middle to Late Pleistocene of the Indian subcontinent, and possibly also elsewhere in Asia.
The species grew larger than any living elephant, and some authors have suggested it to have been the largest known land mammal based on extrapolation from fragmentary remains.
P. namadicus is primarily known from the Indian subcontinent. Remains attributed to this species have also been reported across Southeast Asia as well as southern China.
Some authorities regard it to be a subspecies of Palaeoloxodon antiquus (the European straight-tusked elephant) due to extreme similarities of the tusks.
Also known as Asian straight-tusked elephants, their skull structure were also different from that of a modern elephant.
Several studies have attempted to estimate the size of the Asian straight-tusked elephants, usually using comparisons of thigh bone length and knowledge of relative growth rates to estimate the size of incomplete skeletons.
A 1905 partial skeleton found in India showed a 165 cm (5.41 ft) thigh bone, indicating a total shoulder height of 4.5 meters (14.8 ft) for this individual elephant.
Two partial thigh bones were found in the 19th century and would have measured 160 cm (5.2 ft) when complete.
A fragment from the same location was found to be nearly a quarter larger, using volumetric analysis standing at 5.2 meters tall (17.1 ft) and 22 tones in weight.
Although "highly improbable", this makes P. namadicus the largest land mammal known, surpassing the largest indricotheres.
However, in 2024, latest research showed a maximum shoulder height of over 4.5 meters (15 ft) and a body mass of 13.2 to 18.5 tones (29,000 to 41,000 lb) for 5 measured specimens.
Like other large Palaeoloxodon species, the tusks were likely proportionally large, though no known complete tusks are known.
One partial tusk was estimated to be 3.66 meters (12.0 ft) long and over 120 kilograms (260 lb) in weight when complete, larger than the largest recorded African bush elephant tusk.
Indirect dating shows Palaeoloxodon namadicus died out around 25,000 years ago, near the end of the Pleistocene implying that it overlapped with modern humans in the region.
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