Elephantidae
Family of mammals / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the family of proboscideans. For the common name, see Elephant.
Elephantidae is a family of large, herbivorous proboscidean mammals collectively called elephants and mammoths. These are large terrestrial mammals with a snout modified into a trunk and teeth modified into tusks. Most genera and species in the family are extinct. Only two genera, Loxodonta (African elephants) and Elephas (Asian elephants), are living.
Quick Facts Scientific classification, Type genus ...
Elephantidae | |
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A male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in the wild at Bandipur National Park in India | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Proboscidea |
Superfamily: | Elephantoidea |
Family: | Elephantidae Gray, 1821 |
Type genus | |
Elephas | |
Genera[1] | |
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Synonyms[4] | |
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The family was first described by John Edward Gray in 1821,[5] and later assigned to taxonomic ranks within the order Proboscidea. Elephantidae has been revised by various authors to include or exclude other extinct proboscidean genera.