Palaeoloxodon

Palaeoloxodon Temporal range: Pleistocene PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Fossil skull of a straight-tusked elephant (P. antiquus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Proboscidea
Family:	Elephantidae
Subtribe:	†Palaeoloxodontina
Genus:	†Palaeoloxodon Matsumoto, 1924
Species
P. antiquus P. chaniensis P. cypriotes P. falconeri P. melitensis P. mnaidriensis P. namadicus P. naumanni P. recki P. tokunagai

Palaeoloxodon is an extinct genus that contains the various species of straight-tusked elephant. Its species' remains have been found in Bilzingsleben, Germany; Cyprus; Japan; India; Sicily; Malta; and in England during the excavation of the second Channel Tunnel. The English discovery, in 2006 in northwest Kent, dated c. 400,000 ybp, was of a single adult; associated with it were Palaeolithic stone butchering tools of the type used by Homo heidelbergensis. One species, Palaeoloxodon namadicus, was the largest known land mammal.

Palaeoloxodon was originally thought to be a subgenus of Elephas, but this was abandoned by 2007. It was still believed, nevertheless, to be closely related to the living Asian elephant; however, in 2016, DNA sequence analysis of P. antiquus showed that its closest extant relative is actually the African forest elephant, L. cyclotis. In fact, P. antiquus is closer to L. cyclotis than L. cyclotis is to the African bush elephant, L. africana, thus invalidating the genus Loxodonta as currently recognized.

Some notable species are:

The last mainland European Palaeoloxodon faced extinction 30,000 years ago. The Japanese species possibly survived for a little longer afterwards. Among the last straight-tusked elephants were the Mediterranean dwarf species, which died out 3,000 years ago - possibly at the hands of human hunters and introduced predators.