The Proboscidea of the Past

[Spalea]

" For a long time, palaeontologists thought that Palaeoloxodon antiquus from Europe had a rather slenderly built skull roof crest; whereas the Indian species Palaeoloxodon namadicus is characterised by an extremely robust skull crest that extends near to the base of the trunk from the top of the skull.

But some Palaeoloxodon skulls, found in Italy and Germany, with almost the same exaggerated skull crest as the Indian form, led a few scientists into suspecting these might all be single species.
“Just like modern elephants, Palaeoloxodon went through six sets of teeth in their lifetimes. This means we can tell the age of any individual with confidence by looking at its fossilised teeth,” said Dr. Hanwen Zhang, a paleontologist in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol and the Department of Earth Sciences at UK’s Natural History Museum.
“When we looked at a series of skulls from Italy, Germany and India, we found a consistent pattern: the skull crest developed from being very small, not protruding beyond the forehead in juveniles to being larger and more protruding in young adults, eventually becoming very stout in aged adults.”
http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/palaeoloxodon-evolution-08045.html
Art: @rjpalmerartist"

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