2 - Elephant Evolution

Summary

A bird’s eye view of the ancestral traits of proboscideans, both facilitated and constrained by their large body sizes. A sweeping journey starting with the origins of the extant elephants in Africa, their niche diversification and eventual genetic speciation owing to changes in climate, diet, and distributions. A deep dive into genetics takes us blow by blow into the fierce scientific debate concerning the species status of elephants in Africa as well as the extinct and extant species in Asia. The divergence between the Loxodonta and Elephas clades, today represented by just three living species, is thrown into relief against this long evolutionary story, with selective pressures imposed both by the environment and other species – including their most notable predators, humans. Multiple hypotheses offer competing explanations for the origins and maintenance of sociality in elephants, as well as the threats that brought about their extinction in the past and threaten to do so in the present.