''Elephas platycephalus'' is an extinct species of large herbivorous mammals that were closely related to

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 ...

s. It lived between 130,000 and 700,000 years ago during 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 ...

epoch. Fossils have been found in the upper

Sivalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'. The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and are also home to the Soanian Middle Pale ...

Taxonomy

Author and researcher Vincent Maglio suspected that another species, ''

Mammuthus meridionalis ''Mammuthus meridionalis'', sometimes called the southern mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth native to Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene. Reaching a size exceeding modern elephants, unlike later Eurasian mammoth species, it was largely ...

'' (syn. ''Elephas planifrons''), was a direct ancestor of ''E. platycephalus'' since both of the species appear quite similar. However, upon closely studying the fronto-parietal region of the skull as well as upper molars of the specimens belonging to both species, it was concluded that the two species differed radically.

References

Fossil taxa described in 1929 Elephas Prehistoric elephants {{Paleo-proboscidean-stub