Elephas hysudricus

Elephas hysudricus is an extinct elephant species known from the Pleistocene of Asia. It is thought to be ancestral to the living Asian elephant, from which it is distinguished by the molar teeth having a lower crown height and a lower lamellae number. Remains of the species are primarily known from the Indian subcontinent, with the most important remains coming from the Siwalik Hills. The oldest remains of the species in the Siwaliks are placed at around 2.6 million year ago at the beginning of the Early Pleistocene, with the youngest dates in the Siwaliks during the Middle Pleistocene around 0.6 million years ago, though it likely persisted on the subcontinent later than this based on remains found elsewhere.

Elephas hysudricus

George Henry Ford · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
ElephasPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Elephantidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elephantidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 1.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 3 of 10 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 7 of 10 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 10 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.5 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.58 Mya774 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

10 occurrences of Elephas hysudricus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

10 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Nagrota — 32.70°N, 74.85°ETatrot — 30.73°N, 76.78°E

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The named rock units Elephas hysudricus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 7 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Elephas hysudricus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Elephas hysudricus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

114 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 10 sites for Elephas hysudricus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 10 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Elephas hysudricus

Credit
George Henry Ford
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itElephas through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Falconer and Cautley 1875)