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Elephants have staggering tree trunk that are strong , dexterous and elastic . Now , scientist may have ultimately worked out how Earth ’s largest living land animals evolve their magnetic trunk .
Elephant trunk are marvel of evolutionary biology . They can be more than 6.5 foot ( 2 meters ) long and have more than 40,000 individual muscles and nerve fibers . They are able of lifting over 600 pounds ( 270 kilogram ) but can carefully pick up a exclusive peanut .
Elephants have extremely dexterous trunks that can pick up a single peanut.
The exact environmental and biological insistency that led to the development of these trunks have long puzzled scientist , but a raw preprint written report , published Nov. 28 in the journaleLifereveals that clime - driven changes may explain part of the mystery .
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Understanding the phylogenesis of elephant trunks has always been take exception because the soft tissue paper of the trunk , like sinew and skin , do not fossilise well . This makes it difficult for scientists to find direct grounds of early forms of the trunk in fossil record .
Researchers believe their trunks evolved as a result of pressures on their grassland ancestors millions of years ago.
Many long - trunked animals have long crushed jaw , the scientists explained . But these long mandibles later shorten after co - evolving with a luggage compartment — though the link between the two is somewhat indecipherable .
In the young study , researchers compare three major families of elephant - like mammal in northernChinathat existed around 11 to 20 million years ago , enquire how the physiology of these mathematical group take issue depending on their feeding strategies and ecosystems .
The groups included Amebelodontidae , Choerolophodontidae and Gomphotheriidae — three distinct lineages of gomphotheres , the ancestral radical of livingelephants .
The lead author of the studyChunxiao Li , a researcher at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , separate Live Science that these ancient mammals were of particular interest because they all had long but " tell " mandibles , so could infer how it touch on trunk phylogeny .
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The team analyzed the tooth tooth enamel of these three types of early elephant to reap new clues about their eating habits and the environments they live on in .
They determine that Choerolphontidae seemed to live in relatively shut environment like forests , while Amebelodontidae expanded into more unresolved habitats , such as grasslands . Gomphotheriida appeared to have lived in habitats that were somewhere in between .
The scientist combined these determination with mathematical simulation of the jaw gesture of these three out species .
" Cherolophodon be in dense woods , so there are many plants that have horizontally extending branches , " study co - authorShi - Qi Wang , prof at the Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins at the Chinese Academy of Sciences severalise Live Science .
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Their jaws were suited to exercise force per unit area in up and down focusing , rather than forrader or rearwards , expeditiously cutting through horizontal foliage . The researchers suggest their trunks were relatively archaic and clumsy .
However , the jaw of both Gomphotheriida and Amebelodontidae , which live in more open habitats , were more altered to cutting vertically growing plants like soft - caulescent herb and green goddess . The nasal expanse of their skulls seemed to more close resemble modern elephant , suggesting their bole were capable of coiling or prehensile actions that could avail bring intellectual nourishment directly to their mouths .
" We bang that the whole paleo - surround commute [ during this metre ] from warm and humid to colder , dry and loose environment , " Li say . " At that fourth dimension , we see that these [ other elephants ] start using their long trunk to seize smoke . "
This open - land skimming may have upgrade the evolution of the trunks we see today , she said . It also provides hint as to why forest - abode animals like tapir have tree trunk that are comparatively faint compare with elephants ' trunk .
" We found why [ early elephants ] started to have such sassy trunk … their trunk become stronger and more compromising , until eventually , they start losing their tenacious mandibles , " Wang say .
