''Anancus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of elephantoid proboscideans (" gomphothere" ''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...

'') native to Afro-Eurasia, that lived from the

Tortonian The Tortonian is in the geologic time scale an age or stage of the late Miocene that spans the time between 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma and 7.246 ± 0.005 Ma (million years ago). It follows the Serravallian and is followed by the Messinian. The Torto ...

stage of the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

until the genus' extinction during the early

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

, roughly from 8.5–2 million years ago.

Taxonomy

The type genus of the family, ''Anancus'', was named by

Auguste Aymard Auguste Aymard (5 December 1808 – 26 June 1889) was a French prehistorian and palaeontologist who lived and died in Puy-en-Velay Le Puy-en-Velay (, literally ''Le Puy in Velay''; oc, Lo Puèi de Velai ) is the prefecture of the Haute-Loire ...

in 1855. It was traditionally allocated to

Gomphotheriidae Gomphotheres are any members of the diverse, extinct taxonomic family Gomphotheriidae. Gomphotheres were elephant-like proboscideans, but do not belong to the family Elephantidae. They were widespread across Afro-Eurasia and North America dur ...

, but was later assigned to the family

Elephantidae Elephantidae is a family of large, herbivorous proboscidean mammals collectively called elephants and mammoths. These are terrestrial large mammals with a snout modified into a trunk and teeth modified into tusks. Most genera and species in the ...

by McKenna and Bell (1997), Lambert and Shoshani (1998), Kalb and Froelich (1995), and Shoshani and Tassy (2005). Hautier et al. (2009) assigned the genus to the subfamily Anancinae within Gomphotheriidae. Recently ''Anancus'' along with other tetralophodont gomphotheres have been removed from Gomphotheridae, and are now regarded as members of

Elephantoidea Elephantoidea is a taxonomic group that contains the elephants as well as their closest extinct relatives. The following cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to sh ...

instead.

Description

''Anancus'' stood around tall, with a weight up to 5 tons, and closely resembled a modern

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

. Aside from its somewhat shorter legs, ''Anancus'' was also different from modern elephants in that its tusks were much longer, up to in length. The tusks were possibly defense weapons, not unlike elephants of today. The molars were not composed of lamellae like those of true elephants, but had

cusp A cusp is the most pointed end of a curve. It often refers to cusp (anatomy), a pointed structure on a tooth. Cusp or CUSP may also refer to: Mathematics * Cusp (singularity), a singular point of a curve * Cusp catastrophe, a branch of bifurc ...

s, like

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inh ...

and pig molars; ''Anancus'' appears to have lived in forests, eating from trees and shrubs and digging out tubers and roots in the forest floor, and it died out when these forests gave way to

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

s. Stable carbon isotopes from Ethiopian ''Anancus'' tooth enamel 3–4 million years ago suggest that it grazed on

C4 plants carbon fixation or the Hatch–Slack pathway is one of three known photosynthetic processes of carbon fixation in plants. It owes the names to the 1960's discovery by Marshall Davidson Hatch and Charles Roger Slack that some plants, when suppl ...

Evolutionary history

The oldest known species of ''Anancus'' is ''A. perimensis'', with fossils known from the

~ 8.5 million years ago

Siwalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the Indian ...

of Pakistan. ''Anancus'' entered Europe approximately 7.2 million years ago and around 7 million years ago dispersed into Africa. ''Anancus'' first appeared in China around 6 million years ago (''A. sinensis''). ''Anancus'' disappeared from Asia and Africa around the end of the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Dental microwear Dental microwear analysis is a method to infer diet and behavior in extinct animals, especially in fossil specimens. Typically, the patterns of pits and scratches on the occlusal or buccal surface of the enamel are compared with patterns observed ...

analysis of ''Anancus arvernensis'' generally suggests that it was a browser, consuming twigs, bark, seeds and fruit.

Gallery

File: Anancus jaw.JPG, The jaw of ''Anancus'', an extinct relative of the elephant File: Gomphotheriidae - Anancus arvernensis-000.JPG, Jaw of ''Anancus arvernensis'' from Quaternary of Italy File:Anancus arvernensis .JPG, Molar of ''Anancus arvernensis''

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q138102 Elephantoidea Prehistoric placental genera Miocene proboscideans Pliocene proboscideans Pleistocene proboscideans Miocene genus first appearances Pleistocene genus extinctions Miocene mammals of Africa Pliocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene mammals of Africa Miocene mammals of Asia Pleistocene mammals of Asia Pliocene mammals of Asia Miocene mammals of Europe Pliocene mammals of Europe Pleistocene mammals of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1855