Before modern elephants arose, in Europe and Asia in the Pleistocene and Holocene eras the Palaeoloxodon lived. It is an extinct species of straight-tusked elephants that were very different from the curved tusks of modern elephants in our present period. Scientists speculate that traveled out of Africa, via land bridges that existed in this time and migrated to other parts of the planet. During this era, about 800,000 years ago, elephants developed differently in Europe, Japan, and Asia Central, with even a pygmy type living in the Mediterranean isles. This was noted in a study about Palaeoloxodon.
One standout feature the pachyderm had, is a huge headband structure (crest) on the top of the skull. Another characteristic is the straight tusk that is unique among extinct or living elephants. From the forehead, the parieto-occipital crest will have a downward projection which is unmistakable.
One of the first observations about the skull is how odd it looks, which is grotesque and unusual for pachyderms. The Scottish geologist Hugh Falconer who found the first skull in India did not find the structures appealing but eccentric too.
There were different opinions on how paleontologists viewed two species of the same genus has gross differences in their anatomy. For example, the Palaeoloxodon antiquus living in Europe, and a roof crest that is a slender skull crest (top of skull roof). Another is the Indian versions called Palaeoloxodon namadicus, having bigger skull crest from the trunk's base to the top of the animal's skull.
Skulls of Palaeoloxodon skulls that were recovered in Germany and Italy, had the same crests as the Indian species. The noticeable structures from the Indian species, to those found in Europe, might be just one kind of animal. Not two separate kinds as earlier thought by those studying the fossils of Palaeoloxodon.
These extinct elephants are similar to modern ones because they have six sets of teeth when alive. It makes it easy to tell the age of the fossil when checking the teeth according to Dr. Hanwen Zhang, University of Bristol and Department of Earth Sciences at UK's Natural History Museum. Made determining their age much easy, when inspecting the teeth.
Skulls of the extinct elephants originating from Italy, Germany, and India, were characterized by a crest on the skull that underwent changes as the pachyderm got older. It started from a small protrusion, not going farther than the forehead in young animals, bigger and sticks out more like young adults, and is prominent and robust in much older animals.
Dr. Asier Larramendi, an independent researcher based in Spain measured the skull and limbs of these extinct elephants which yielded interesting findings. He came to conclude that both are not the same but distinct species. One proof is the less dense crests of the European ones, while the Indian counterpart has thicker and denser crests.
All these distinct differences between the two as species that are larger than elephants of today. The tusks of these huge pachyderms are the biggest, evolved since then. It measured from 4.5-feet, top of the skull to the bottom of the tusk covering or sheathe. Its skull crest was evolved to add more neck muscle to attach to, to support the huge head of the elephant.
One conclusion by researchers is that the evolution of the two Palaeoloxodon species is the characteristic of the crest. Depending on the skull crests whether it is more prominent or not, these differences are seen in the ones in Europe and in Asia.
Read: New Research Tracks Evolution of Extinct Straight-Tusked Elephants
