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''Palaeoloxodon recki'', often known by the synonym ''Elephas recki,'' is an
extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
species of
elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
native to Africa and
West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...
from the
Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Early Pleistocene The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial epoch (geology), sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, representing the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently esti ...
to the
Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...
. During most of its existence, the species (in its broad sense) represented the dominant elephant species in East Africa. The species is divided into five roughly chronologically successive subspecies, collectively termed the "''Elephas recki'' complex". While the type and latest subspecies ''P. recki recki'' as well as the preceding ''P. recki ileretensis'' are widely accepted to be closely related and ancestral to Eurasian ''
Palaeoloxodon ''Palaeoloxodon'' is an extinct genus of elephant. The genus originated in Africa during the Early Pleistocene, and expanded into Eurasia at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene. The genus contains the largest known species of elephants, with ...
,'' the relationships of the other, chronologically earlier subspecies to ''P. recki recki, P. recki ileretensis'' and ''Palaeoloxodon'' are uncertain, with it being suggested they are unrelated and should be elevated to separate species.


Taxonomy

The species was initially named from specimens found at Bed IV in
Olduvai Gorge The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropology, paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evo ...
, Tanzania by Wilhelm Otto Dietrich in 1915, originally as a subspecies of the European
straight-tusked elephant The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle and Late Pleistocene. One of the largest known elephant species, mature full ...
, what is now called ''Palaeoloxodon antiquus,'' as ''Elephas antiquus recki''. It was named after Hans Reck, a German paleontologist and geologist who had done the initial surveying of the gorge in 1913, and had collected a considerable number of fossils from the locality.''''
Camille Arambourg Camille Arambourg (February 3, 1885 – November 19, 1969) was a French vertebrate paleontologist. He conducted extensive field work in North Africa. In the 1950s, he argued against the prevailing model of Neanderthals as brutish and simian. Du ...
in 1942 described additional specimens of the species from Omo Valley in Ethiopia, and suggested that they were distinctive enough that they warranted being placed as the distinct species ''E. recki.'' The two deposits are not contemporaneous and the specimens from each locality are morphologically distinctive from each other, which has led to confusion about which locality represents the "typical" morphology of the species. The placement of ''Elepas recki'' in the genus ''
Elephas ''Elephas'' is a genus of elephants and one of two surviving genera in the Family (biology), family Elephantidae, comprising one extant species, the Asian elephant (''E. maximus''). Several extinct species have been identified as belonging to t ...
'' was contested as early as 1942, when in a publication by Douglas Gordon MacInnes and Henry Fairfield Osborn's posthumous monograph on fossil proboscideans it was suggested that ''Elephas recki'' should instead be placed in ''
Palaeoloxodon ''Palaeoloxodon'' is an extinct genus of elephant. The genus originated in Africa during the Early Pleistocene, and expanded into Eurasia at the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene. The genus contains the largest known species of elephants, with ...
,'' though many later authors continued to place the species in the genus ''Elephas,'' treating ''Palaeoloxodon'' as a subgenus of ''Elephas''.'''' Michel Beden's publications during the 1980s on ''Elephas recki'' primarily focusing on molar morphology identified five successive subspecies, from oldest to youngest with ages according to Sanders (2023)'''': * ''E. r. brumpti'' Beden, 1980 Early Pliocene-~3.2 million years ago (mya) * ''E. r. shungurensis'' Beden, 1980 ~3.2-2.3 mya * ''E. r. atavus'' Arambourg, 1947 ~2.3-1.8 mya * ''E. r. ileretensis'' Beden, 1987 ~1.8-1.4/1.6 mya * ''E. r. recki'' (Dietrich, 1916) 1.6/1.4 mya-late Middle Pleistocene For decades after Beden's publications, his view of "''Elephas recki''" as a succession of subspecies was accepted as orthodoxy. However, Beden's views of ''Elephas recki'' evolution were challenged by the work of Nancy Todd published in 2001 and 2005. Todd found that the different subspecies exhibited high variability in molar dimensions within subspecies, but low variability between the subspecies, and that not all of the subspecies clustered together with each other in cladistic analysis, as would be expected if they formed a single species, with ''E. r. brumpti E. r. shungurensis'' and ''E. r. atavus'' being placed separately from ''E. r. ileretensis and'' ''E. r. recki,'' and that the supposed subspecies substantially chronologically overlapped, though later work suggested that this chronological overlap was likely overstated.'''' A 2020 PhD thesis by Hanwen (Steven) Zhang, focusing primarily on skull morphology again challenged the monophyly of ''Elephas recki'' as a whole, finding that while ''E. r. ileretensis'' and ''E. recki recki'' has a close relationship with Eurasian ''Palaeoloxodon.'' which genetic data shows is closely related to African elephants ('' Loxodonta''), the other named ''E. recki'' subspecies were likely unrelated, and more closely related to true members of the genus ''
Elephas ''Elephas'' is a genus of elephants and one of two surviving genera in the Family (biology), family Elephantidae, comprising one extant species, the Asian elephant (''E. maximus''). Several extinct species have been identified as belonging to t ...
'' (which contains the living
Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living ''Elephas'' species. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living Elephantidae, elephantid in the world. It is char ...
). Zhang suggested that ''E. r. brumpti'' was synonymous with '' "Elephas" planifrons'', primarily known from the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene of the Indian subcontinent, and that this species should be placed into '' Phanagoroloxodon'', while ''E. r. atavus'' should be elevated to full species status as a true member of the genus ''Elephas''. However, while Sanders (2023) accepted that ''E. r. brumpti'' was unlikely to be closely related to ''E. recki recki,'' he rejected the synonymity of ''E. r. brumpti'' with ''"Elephas" planifrons (''though he suggested that the two may be sister species), and questioned their placement in ''Phanagoroloxodon'', while he considered the relationship of ''E. r. atavus'' to ''E. recki recki'' to be uncertain.'''' The traditional definition of the species ''sensu lato'' including the 5 historically recognised subspecies has been termed the "''Elephas recki'' complex". Outside its core East African distribution. It has also been suggested that material from
West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...
, including that from the earliest Middle Pleistocene (c. 780,000 years ago) Paleolithic archaeological site Gesher Bnot Ya'akov (previously attributed to ''P. antiquus'') in northern Israel, the Middle Pleistocene (c. 500,000 years ago) Ti's al Ghadah site in northern Saudi Arabia, and the late Middle Pleistocene Shishan Marsh site in Jordan, belongs to ''P. recki recki''.''''


Description

Members of the species were larger than any living elephant. A large mostly complete male specimen of ''P. recki atavus'' from
Koobi Fora Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language ...
, Kenya, suggested to have been approximately 40 years old when it died, was estimated in a 2016 study to have measured tall at the shoulder and weighed , with the tusks of some ''P. recki'' individuals reaching in length, and masses likely considerably in excess of . In 2024, Biswas, Chang and Tsai estimated its maximum shoulder height at , with the estimated body masses of 7 measured specimens ranging from . In comparison to most Eurasian species of ''Palaeoloxodon,'' the parieto-occipital crest of ''P. recki recki'' at the top of the skull is only weakly developed. The frons (forehead) is tall and biconvex. Like Eurasian ''Palaeoloxodon'' species, the premaxillary bones of ''P. recki recki'' containing the tusks flare laterally outwards. Over time the molar teeth of ''P. recki'' show an increasing number of lamellae, and taller crown height ( hypsodonty).


Ecology

All named subspecies of ''P/E. recki,'' regardless of true evolutionary relationships, are thought to have been dedicated grazers, with the molar teeth of later subspecies showing greater adaption to grazing than earlier subspecies. Carbon isotope analysis of ''P. recki recki'' suggests that while it always primarily consumed C4 grasses, it showed a degree of dietary flexibility, and particularly towards the end of its existence it consumed some C3 plants, likely including a degree of browse.'''' Oxygen isotope analysis of ''P. recki recki'' also shows a shift from using stable, permanent water sources during the Early Pleistocene to adapting to using transient water sources during the Middle Pleistocene.''''


Evolutionary history and extinction

Following the emergence of ''P. recki'' in Africa, at the end of the Early Pleistocene, around 800,000 years ago, a population of ''P. recki recki'' migrated out of Africa, giving rise to the Eurasian radiation of ''Palaeoloxodon.'' Its descendant taxon or last evolutionary stage, '' Palaeoloxodon jolensis'', is known from remains found across Africa of late
Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...
to
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...
age, with a number of authors suggesting that ''P. jolensis'' likely became extinct at the Middle-Late Pleistocene boundary around 130,000 years ago. Following the extinction of ''P. jolensis'' it was replaced by the modern
African bush elephant The African bush elephant (''Loxodonta africana''), also known as the African savanna elephant, is a species of elephant native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of three extant elephant species and, along with the African forest elephant, one ...
(''Loxodonta africana''). The extinction of the ''P. recki/jolensis'' lineage in Africa has either been attributed to the increasing aridification of Africa across the Middle Pleistocene, or the growing sophistication of human hunters.''''


Relationship with humans

At several sites across Africa, remains of ''P. recki'' have been found associated with stone tools. In some cases like Olduvai FLK, these are likely coincidental, but in others which bears cut marks, these likely represent evidence of butchery by
archaic humans ''Homo'' () is a genus of great ape (family Hominidae) that emerged from the genus ''Australopithecus'' and encompasses only a single extant species, ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), along with a number of extinct species (collectively calle ...
. Sites containing ''P. recki'' remains with cut marks and/or stone tools include Upper Bed II at the Bell's Korongo site in Olduvai Gorge, dating to around 1.35 million years ago, which has been suggested to be the oldest site in the world with reliable evidence of elephant butchery, associated with
Oldowan The Oldowan (or Mode I) was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry during the early Lower Paleolithic spanning the late Pliocene and the first half of the Early Pleistocene. These early tools were simple, usually made by chipping one ...
-type stone tools, and the Olorgesailie Basin Member 1 Site 15 in Kenya, dated to 992–974,000 years ago, and the Nadung’a 4 site near Lake Turkana, Kenya, dating to approximately 700,000 years ago. The Barogali site in Djibouti, dating to 1.6-1.3 million years ago, where a disassociated specimen of ''P. recki'' (suggested to be ''E. recki atavus'') was found with numerous stone tools (probably Oldowan) created onsite, has also been suggested to be a butchery site. The ''P. recki'' specimen from Gesher Bnot Ya'akov is associated with an
Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with ''Homo ...
stone handaxe and other bifaced tools, and displays cut marks and fracture marks indicative of butchery, though the fracturing of the skull, which has been suggested to be the result of an attempt to extract the brain, may alternatively be the result of postmortem
trampling Trampling is the act of walking on something repeatedly by humans or animals. Trampling on open ground can destroy the above ground parts of many plants and can compact the soil, thereby creating a distinct microenvironment that specific species ...
. At the T69 Complex in Olduvai Gorge, dating to around 1.5 million years ago, archaic humans using Acheulean tools knapped ''P. cf recki'' bones along with those of the large hippo '' Hippopotamus cf. gorgops'' to create bone tools. As of 2025, these are currently the oldest known bone tools.


Gallery


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q693352 recki Pliocene proboscideans Pleistocene proboscideans Pleistocene species extinctions Pliocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene mammals of Africa Fossil taxa described in 1894