Models
of straight-tusked elephants Palaeoloxodon (© Apotea/Wikipedia)
As recently as
3000 years ago, elephants were still living wild in northern China, which may
come as something of a surprise to many people. But something far more surprising
concerning them has lately been proposed.
It had long been
assumed that these were Asian elephants Elephas maximus, because this
familiar modern-day species still exists today in southern China. However,
researches conducted by a team of scientists from Shaanxi Normal University and
Northwest University in Xi'an and from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and
Natural Resources Research in Beijing, and published on 19 December 2012 in a Quaternary
International paper, sensationally divulged that the northern China
elephants seemingly belonged to an entirely separate, ostensibly long-extinct
genus, Palaeoloxodon – housing the straight-tusked elephants.
Might Palaeoloxodon warrant an entry in my book In Search of Prehistoric Survivors?
Until now, China's Palaeoloxodon species (as yet unnamed) was thought to have died out at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, approximately 10,000 years ago. However, the Chinese team's findings indicate that it was still alive at least 7000 years longer, into historic times – a veritable prehistoric survivor, in fact.
The team's
revelations were based upon their re-examination of 3000-year-old fossil teeth
hitherto believed to have been from Elephas but now recognised to belong
to Palaeoloxodon; and their reinterpretation of 33 northern Chinese
elephant-shaped bronze wares from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties (c.
4100-2300 years ago) whose trunks all had two grasping finger-like digits,
whereas the trunk of E. maximus only ever has one, thus suggesting that
these bronzes may depict Palaeoloxodon, not Elephas.
Possible
Palaeoloxodon depicted by ancient Chinese ware, with two-fingered
trunk-ending ringed in red (© Quaternary International)
Not everyone
agrees that this partial resurrection of Palaeoloxodon in China is
valid, however, with fossil elephant experts Drs Adrian Lister and Victoria
Herridge claiming that the supposed dental differentiating features are merely
contrast artefacts created by the low resolution of the photographs as
published in the Chinese team's paper and that these features do not appear in
better-quality photographic reproductions. They also note that cultural and
iconographical aspects appertaining to Chinese art at the time of the bronzes'
creation might reconcile their double-digited trunks with Elephas after
all, not requiring the need to resurrect Palaeoloxodon.
In short, it is
likely that this intriguing subject will attract further palaeontological
scrutiny and contention for some time to come.
Ornate sculpture of an Asian elephant
Elephas maximus (© Dr Karl Shuker)
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