Loxodonta adaurora

Loxodonta adaurora is an extinct species of elephant in the genus Loxodonta, that of the African elephants. Fossils of Loxodonta adaurora have only been found in Africa, where they developed in the Pliocene.[1] L. adaurora was presumed to be the genetic antecedent of the two modern African elephant species;[2] however, an analysis in 2009 suggested that L. africana evolved from L. atlantica.[3] The same study concluded that Loxodonta adaurora was morphologically indistinguishable from Mammuthus subplanifrons and that these constituted the same species.

Loxodonta adaurora
Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Proboscidea
Family: Elephantidae
Genus: Loxodonta
Species:
L. adaurora
Binomial name
Loxodonta adaurora
Maglio, 1970

References

  1. "The genus Loxodonta, member of the family of elephants".
  2. Kalb, Jon E.; Assefa Mebrate (1993). Fossil Elephantoids from the Hominid-Bearing Awash Group, Middle Awash Valley, Afar Depression, Ethiopia. Independence Square, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. pp. 52–59. ISBN 978-0-87169-831-5. Loxodonta adaurora.
  3. The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology Volume 293, Issue 1, Article first published online: 20 NOV 2009: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.21010/pdf, retrieved 2 December 2011.


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