Palaeoloxodon antiquus

The straight-tusked elephant is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. One of the largest known elephant species, mature fully grown bulls on average had a shoulder height of 4 metres (13 ft) and a weight of 13 tonnes (29,000 lb), placing them among the largest land mammals ever. Straight-tusked elephants likely lived very similarly to modern elephants, with herds of adult females and juveniles and solitary adult males. The species was primarily associated with temperate and Mediterranean woodland and forest habitats, flourishing during interglacial periods, when its range would extend across Europe as far north as Great Britain and Denmark and eastwards into Russia, while persisting in southern Europe during glacial periods, when northern Europe was occupied by steppe mammoths and later woolly mammoths. Skeletons with cut marks and/or found in association with stone tools and in one case, a wooden spear, suggest they were scavenged and hunted by early humans, including Homo heidelbergensis and their Neanderthal successors.

Palaeoloxodon antiquus

Diagram Lajard · CC0 · 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
PalaeoloxodonPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Elephantidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elephantidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
15 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 1.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 83 occurrencesPleistocene — about 83 of 83 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 83 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.5–2.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.4–2.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.3–2.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.2–2.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.1–2.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.0–1.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.8–1.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.7–1.6 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.6–1.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.5–1.4 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.4–1.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.3–1.2 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.2–1.1 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.1–1.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.0–924 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.8 Mya129 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

83 occurrences of Palaeoloxodon antiquus 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

83 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

5 formations

Unterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°EUnterer Travertin — 50.98°N, 11.31°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.88°N, 1.44°ENorwich Crag — 52.53°N, 1.59°ESabbie di Nugola Vecchia — 43.56°N, 10.52°EPerdikas — 40.63°N, 21.63°E

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The named rock units Palaeoloxodon antiquus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 75 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeoloxodon antiquus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Palaeoloxodon antiquus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

306 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 83 sites for Palaeoloxodon antiquus, 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

47 references

Each of the 83 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. 35 further references are not listed. 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 content2

Picture of Palaeoloxodon antiquus

Credit
Diagram Lajard
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Palaeoloxodon antiquus · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 11156ak

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 itPalaeoloxodon through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Falconer and Cautley 1847)