The Evolution of the Elephant

Proboscidea is a mammal group with a rich history of evolution that spanned the entire Cenozoic era. Elephants are among the many species in this diverse order.

Introduction (0:00)
--Oldest Probscideans--
Eritherium (0:58)
Phosphatherium (1:42)
Moeritherium (2:12)
--Plesielephantiformes--
Numidotheriidae (3:23)
Barytheriidae (4:22)
Deinotheriidae (5:39)
--Elephantiformes-- (7:15)
Palaemastodon (7:34)
Phiomia (8:06)
Eritreum (8:23)
Hemimastodon (8:38)
--Elephantimorpha-- (8:47)
Mammutidae (8:55)
Ambelodontidae (11:32)
Choerolophodontidae (12:49)
Gomphotheriidae (13:06)
--Elephantoidea-- (15:06)
Anancidae (15:31)
Stegodontidae (15:53)
Stegotetrabelodontinae (16:01)
--Elephantidae-- (16:32)
Loxodonta (16:57)
Palaeoloxodon (17:32)
Mammuthus (17:54)
Elephas (22:08)

Information Sources:

Image Sources:
Mauricio Anton
Heinrech Harder
cisiopurple - DeviantArt
Joshua Knuppe
Mark Witton

All copyrighted images belong to their respected owners. Please notify me if I neglected to credit your work.

[slappy]

I find it amazing that so many elephants evolved such different tusks. Platybelodon completely blows my mind.

[vjbele]

This is such an underrated channel; Cenozoic animals don’t get enough love IMO, and they need more attention. Keep up these amazing videos!

[pocketmarcy]

We’re now seeing elephants in Southern Africa develop very reduced tusks as a result of the animals with more prominent tusks being poached. Just a nice example of human induced evolution

[VideosByCal]

Mastodon - "Okay, got it..."
Wooly Mammoth - "A little furry, but still a 'phant."
The rest of these - "Holy fucking shit, what's going on?!"

[fabricio-agrippa-zarate]

As an interesting note, the mammoths at the Russian island were so few, there was heavy inbreeding and the genetic pool was all messed up. Their fur grew shaggy and unable to protect them from cold, and also had lots of growth and development issues.

[cynthiajelsema]

I don't know if you read comments after a year or not. But I live in Michigan and about two weeks ago a man was removing a bunch of sludge to work on a road. Once that was out of the way, he discovered two mastodon skeletons! It's believed they were young. The femur bone is 4 ft long. 🐘🐘

[dinomation]

Elephants have one of the most interesting evolutionary lineage of any mammals.

[dukenukem]

Great upload! Thanks for posting. I had absolutely no idea that mammoths existed 1000 years AFTER the first pyramids in Egypt were built!!! That was mind-blowing...

[whenitsraining]

Yes! A channel that discusses just what I love. There was a time I was obsessed with drawing elephants, one after another. I appreciate the content. Keep up the good work!

[arminhappel]

Elephant Babys are, objectively speaking, very cute!

[johnnymcauliffe]

My first thought regarding that baby Woolly Mammoth was “Awww, so cute, ” which then went immediately to “Oh God, wait…she must’ve died horribly.” Thanks for not reading that whole bit.

[JohnDrummondPhoto]

How about the co-evolution of North America's two fastest animals: the pronghorn and its now-extinct primary predator, the American cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani)?

[_robustus_]

Most documentaries start the story at moeritherium. I was not aware of the 1st 3 you covered. You rock!

[prototropo]

Thankyou for the anti-poaching remarks! A world without elephants would be truly lonely.

[invisiblejaguar]

I knew I would cry when you got to modern elephants, I love them so much

[YoursTrulyThePony]

I love elephants❤
One of my favorite land animals in the world.

And the interesting evolution of the Elephant is the reason why always come back to this video.

[abyabraham]

I loved this. It's kinda hard to find such dedicated research on evolution of mammals. Nice work

[tummytub]

People always think only humans do deforestation. Mammoth and elephants are responsible for deforesting entire continents, but the did it the right way. While mammoths roamed Siberia they prevented the growth of forests so smaller plants could grow creating tundras and vast planes of moorlands. Those areas were responsible for a huge amount of oxygen production, a lot more than forests are. They were also greatly responsible for creating deserts. While that might seem a bad thing Elephants stayed in balance with their alterations made in the landscape. If there are too many elephants a food shortage makes them die off until there's enough food again to feed the survivors, that's something humans don't tend to do.
Having met with elephants, I also don't want to live in a world without them. I love elephants and am very happy there are humans that try and save the elephant from extinction they play a very important part in the survival of our planet.

[CretinusMaximus]

I hope this channel grows as much as it deserves. Keep the great work, the videos are fantastic!

[chiaroscuroamore]

Thank you for your hard work!
Your videos are always well done and super informative.
I didn’t know until now just how diverse elephant evolution has been!