Elephants acquire tusks and a trunk
Palaeomastodon and Phiomia in Egypt have real tusks in both jaws and a proboscis worth the name.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 5.9 million years
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Oligocene, Cenozoic
The Fayum proboscideans of the early Oligocene are the point where the elephant design becomes recognisable: two-metre bodies, elongated lower jaws with shovel-like tusks, upper tusks, and a nasal region indicating a genuine trunk. The trunk is the enabling invention — a large animal with a short neck cannot otherwise reach the ground — and once it exists, size can increase without limit. From this stock come the gomphotheres, mastodons, mammoths and elephants.