Loxodonta adaurora explained

Loxodonta adaurora is an extinct species of elephant in the genus Loxodonta, that of the African elephants. Fossils of Loxodonta adaurora have only been found in Africa, where they developed in the Pliocene.^[1] L. adaurora was presumed to be the genetic antecedent of the two modern African elephant species;^[2] however, an analysis in 2009 suggested that L. africana evolved from L. atlantica.^[3] The same study concluded that Loxodonta adaurora was morphologically indistinguishable from Mammuthus subplanifrons and that these constituted the same species probably within the mammoth lineage. However, other authors have continued to consider L. adaurora a valid species of Loxodonta, with some considering it an early morph of Loxodonta exoptata.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Web site: The genus Loxodonta, member of the family of elephants.
2. Book: Kalb, Jon E. . Assefa Mebrate . Fossil Elephantoids from the Hominid-Bearing Awash Group, Middle Awash Valley, Afar Depression, Ethiopia . The American Philosophical Society . 1993 . Independence Square, Philadelphia . 52 - 59 . Loxodonta adaurora. . 978-0-87169-831-5 .
3. Todd . Nancy E. . January 2010 . New Phylogenetic Analysis of the Family Elephantidae Based on Cranial-Dental Morphology . The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology . en . 293 . 1 . 74–90 . 10.1002/ar.21010. 19937636 . free .
4. Sanders . William J. . March 2020 . Proboscidea from Kanapoi, Kenya . Journal of Human Evolution . en . 140 . 102547 . 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.10.013. 30745193 . 73451588 .