Fossilized Cranium Discovered in Kenya Belongs to African Elephant Species From 4.5 Million Years Ago

The University of Michigan experts recently looked at the gigantic cranium of an extinct Loxodonta adaurora that existed 4.5 million years back in now-called Kenya.

A Mail Online report said researchers have reassessed the gigantic cranium of an African elephant's ancient relative and discovered that it used substantially less energy than other prehistoric elephants, allowing it to become the leading or prevailing species of the era.

The animal's molars are higher-crowned, not to mention, they had thicker coatings of cementum compared to other ancient elephants, making the teeth more resistant to wear from chewing typically discovered in grass-eating creatures.

As a result, the said elephant species used less energy to feed, which enabled it to live longer, defeating out of six or seven other elephant species living at the same time and in a shared region.

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(Photo: Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China on Wikimedia Commons)
Fossil Elephant Teeth

Loxodonta Adaurora

The modern-day African elephant, on the other hand, is the prevailing species in eastern Africa. The fossilized cranium, which the National Museum of Kenya labeled as KNM-ER 63642, was discovered in 2013 in the northeastern side of Lake Turkana, specifically in Ileret Region. The species has a heavy two-ton weight. More so, it belonged to a male Loxodonta adaurora.

In general, the male L. adaurora weighed roughly nine tons and possibly stood approximately 12 feet at the shoulder, substantially bigger than modern-day elephants.

The modern-day elephant weighs approximately seven tons and measures approximately nine to 10 feet tall. Upon further investigation, the University of Michigan researchers discovered that the cranium is "raised and compressed from front to back.

Eastern Africa, Home to Many Elephant Species

The study suggested a novel alignment of chewing muscles, well-fit for the effective shearing of grasses that did not need too much energy when feeding.

William Sanders, a paleontologist from the University of Michigan, said in a statement, the evident synchronization of morphological adaptations, as well as feeding behavior of the L. adaurora, as revealed in the research, may explain the reason it became the dominant species of an elephant during the early Pliocene.

Furthermore, Eastern Africa was home to seven or eight identified species of elephants at the time, along with other animals like hippos, pigs, antelope, horses, and rhinos.

The researchers explained, lot of these animals were turning out to be grazers, not to mention competing for the available grasses.

Australopithecine Species with Human-Like and Primate-Like Traits

Sanders, an associate research scientist at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and in the Department of Anthropology said, the adaptations of L. adaurora put it at a remarkable advantage over more primitive elephants, in that, it could perhaps, use less energy to chew more food, and live longer "to have more offspring."

Essentially, L. adaurora and other prehistoric elephants lived side-by-side with a pair of well-known australopithecine species in eastern Africa, which had both primate-like and human-like traits.

The prehistoric elephants kept grasses low to the ground, enabling australopithecine to see over the vegetation and watch for predators.

The prehistoric elephants uprooted shrubs and knocked over threes, resulting in spreading seeds across the area and gowning more nutrients for both the australopithecines and animals.

A Threat to Extinction of Mammal Lineage

Sanders explained the origins and early successes of this present generation's biological family are associated with elephants.

Their existence on the landscape developed more open conditions that favored the first bipedal hominin ancestors' activities and adaptations.

From this perspective, the researchers noted in their study published in Palaeovertebrata, ironically, it is tragic that the present human activities of encroaching land use, poaching, and human-driven climate change are now a threat to the mammal lineage's extinction that helped humans to begin their evolutionary development.

Related information about the discovery is shown on Viral Seal's YouTube video below:

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