Meeting Abstract

P3.42  Jan. 6  Comparison of the cranio-dental osteology of the extant elephants, Elephas maximus (Asian elephant) and Loxodonta africana (African elephant) and application of these discreet characters in a cladistic analysis of the Family Elephantidae. TODD, Nancy E.; Manhattanville College toddn@mville.edu

Few osteological descriptions of the extant elephants, and no detailed morphological comparison of the two species, Elephas maximus and Loxodonta africana, have been done in recent years. In this study, 786 specimens of extant elephants (crania, mandibles and molars) were examined for characters unique to each species. Striking differences in morphology were noted between sexes of both elephants, and between subspecies. This complements current genetic studies, the focus of which has been to determine division at the subspecies or species level, particularly between the savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) and the forest elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis). In addition to studying morphological variation, the two living elephants provide an excellent dataset for identifying discreet morphological characters for use in examining evolutionary relationships within and between fossil lineages of elephantids. The discreet characters were used in a cladistic analysis of the elephantidae, which shows interesting parallel patterns of evolution in all three lineages (Loxodonta, Elephas and Mammuthus), but also suggests new migration events and new evolutionary relationships between early African species such as Elephas recki and later Eurasian species such as Elephas antiquus and Elephas namadicus. Traditionally thought to be relatively conservative in its morphology, this study suggests that the African elephant specialized earlier and in a different direction than Elephas and Mammuthus. This has implications not just for character polarity, but for the origin of the family as a whole.