The truth about Chinese elephants was extinct 3000 years ago

(Scientists say wild elephants lived in North China 3000 years ago of the extinct Palaeoloxodon species). Earlier, the elephant was believed to be Elephas maximus, an Asian elephant still living in South China.

The results of this study on elephants have been published on Quarternary International, conducted by scientists from Shaanxi Normal University, Northwest University in Xi'an and the Institute of Geoscience and Talent Research. Natural resources, Beijing.

Today, wild elephants do not live in North China, but historical documents show that they have traveled freely 3,000 years ago.

For decades, experts have argued that this wild elephant is an E.maximous elephant - an elephant that only adapts to the tropical climate and still lives in southern China's Yunnan province. They thought that North China was influenced by the tropical climate at that time.

However, later research results show that most of northern China is in the warm temperate climate and not in the subtropical region 3000 years ago."This means that temperatures in North China are not warm enough for E.maximus to survive ," said Li of the research group.

Palaeoloxodon is thought to have disappeared from its habitat in China during the transition period between the Pleistocene and the Holocene century 10,000 years ago.

To investigate whether this animal lived through the Pleistocene to the Holocene century, the team re-examined fossil elephant teeth found in the Holocene rock in the 1990s. Previous scientists think that they are fossils of E.maximus species. However, Mr. Li's team concluded that teeth and ivory resemble the more straight-forward ivory Palaeoloxodon.

The research team also examined dozens of bronze elephant statues dating back to the Chu and Thuong dynasty after Mr. Li noticed that the taps on these decorations did not simulate the tap varieties of E.maximus.

Elephants may have one or two fingers on their heads. 33 elephants collected from many places throughout China have 2 fingers on the tip, while E.maximus has only one.

'The Palaeoxodon species, which has one or two fingers on the tip, is still unknown, but the E.maximus species is definitely only one finger,' Li said.

The age of these bronze statues reinforces the researchers' hypothesis that the Palaexodon has not become extinct until several thousand years after the time when people thought they were extinct.

The team's findings are similar to the recent findings that large mammals, including rhinos, mammoths, and bison still exist until the Holocene century, but have not disappeared. Pleistocene.