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Proboscidea facts for kids

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Proboscidea
Temporal range: late Palaeocene – Recent
African Elephant by thesaint.jpg
African elephant
Scientific classification
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Order:
Proboscidea

Illiger, 1811

Proboscidea is an order containing only one familiy of living animals, Elephantidae, the elephants, with three living species (African forest elephant, African bush elephant, and Asian elephant).

During the period of the last ice age there were more, now extinct species, including a number of species of the elephant-like mammoths and mastodons.

The oldest proboscidean dates from the early Palaeogene period, over 50 million years ago. The evolution of the elephant-like animals mainly concerned the proportions of the cranium and jaw and the shape of the tusks and molar teeth.

Families

Present-day elephants are the survivors of a once larger and more varied family.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Proboscidea para niños

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