Naumann's Elephant

Palaeoloxodon naumanni is an extinct species of elephant belonging to the genus Palaeoloxodon that was native to the Japanese archipelago during the Middle to Late Pleistocene around 330,000 to 24,000 years ago. It is named after the German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann who first described remains of the species in the late 19th century, with the species sometimes being called Naumann's elephant. Fossils attributed to P. naumanni are also known from China, though the status of these specimens is unresolved, and some authors regard them as belonging to separate species.

Description

Specimen of Palaeoloxodon naumanni at the Hokkaido MuseumPalaeoloxodon naumanni, like other members of the genus Palaeoloxodon had a growth of bone, dubbed the parietal-occipital crest on the top of the skull to anchor the splenius and possibly other muscles to support the head. In comparison to other Eurasian species of Palaeoloxodon, the parietal-occipital crest was only weakly developed (though more pronounced in males than in females) and does not come near the nasal opening, comparable to the condition in the African Palaeoloxodon recki. The frons (forehead region) of the skull is wide and proportionally flat, with the frontal being high. The premaxillae bones (which contain the tusks) are relatively short in comparison to other Palaeoloxodon species. The stylohyoid bone shows the development of a distinctive depression called the "angulus", which appears to be a unique autapomorphy (distinctive characteristic) of this species. The species like other elephants was sexually dimorphic, with P. naumanni having a reconstructed shoulder height of 2. 4–2. 8 metres (7. 9–9. 2 ft), for males and around 2 metres (6. 6 ft) for females. This is relatively small in comparison to other (non-dwarf) Palaeoloxodon species. The shoulders represent the highest position of the back. The limb bones are generally robust, and the deltoid muscle ridge on the humerus is well developed. The tusks were upward curving and somewhat twisted in males, but were relatively straight and untwisted in females, and reached a maximum length of about 2. 2–2. 4 metres (7. 2–7. 9 ft) and a maximum diameter of 20 centimetres (7. 9 in).

Discovery and nomenclature

In 1860, the first fossil was found at Yokosuka and the bottom of the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. German geologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann researched and reported these fossils in “Ueber japanische Elephanten der Vorzeit” (1882). Naumann classified the fossil as belonging to the species Elephas namadicus (now