Loxodonta adaurora

Loxodonta adaurora Temporal range: Pliocene
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	Elephantidae
Genus:	Loxodonta
Species:	†L. adaurora
Binomial name
†Loxodonta adaurora Maglio, 1970

Loxodonta adaurora is an extinct species of elephant in the genus Loxodonta , that of the African elephants. Fossils of Loxodonta adaurora have only been found in Africa, where they developed in the Pliocene. ^[1] L. adaurora was presumed to be the genetic antecedent of the two modern African elephant species; ^[2] however, an analysis in 2009 suggested that L. africana evolved from L. atlantica . ^[3] The same study concluded that Loxodonta adaurora was morphologically indistinguishable from Mammuthus subplanifrons and that these constituted the same species probably within the mammoth lineage. ^[3] However, other authors have continued to consider L. adaurora a valid species of Loxodonta, with some considering it an early morph of Loxodonta exoptata. ^[4]

References

1. "The genus Loxodonta, member of the family of elephants".
2. Kalb, Jon E.; Assefa Mebrate (1993). Fossil Elephantoids from the Hominid-Bearing Awash Group, Middle Awash Valley, Afar Depression, Ethiopia. Independence Square, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. pp.  52–59. ISBN   978-0-87169-831-5. Loxodonta adaurora.
3. Todd, Nancy E. (January 2010). "New Phylogenetic Analysis of the Family Elephantidae Based on Cranial-Dental Morphology". The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology. 293 (1): 74–90. doi: 10.1002/ar.21010 . PMID   19937636.
4. Sanders, William J. (March 2020). "Proboscidea from Kanapoi, Kenya" . Journal of Human Evolution. 140: 102547. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.10.013. PMID   30745193. S2CID   73451588.