The straight-tusked elephant
Europe's interglacial forests hold an elephant larger than any alive today.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 645 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 100 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
Palaeoloxodon antiquus stands up to four metres at the shoulder and weighs as much as thirteen tonnes, larger than a mammoth, with long nearly straight tusks. It browses the temperate woodlands of interglacial Europe and retreats south during glacials. Ancient DNA delivered a surprise: it is closer to the African forest elephant than to the Asian elephant, and its genome carries evidence of ancient hybridisation. Several sites preserve them butchered by humans.