Characteristics of the proboscis detachment. Summary: The variety of representatives of the Proboscis and Callous-footed orders. African bush elephant

a brief description of order (and family)

Proboscis - the largest land animals (shoulder height 3-4 m; weight 4-5 tons); were numerous and widespread in the Tertiary period. The size of the proboscideans is the largest among modern land mammals. Males are larger than females.
The body is massive, elongated. The neck is short. The head is huge with large fan-shaped ears, small eyes (with nictitating membrane) and a long muscular trunk, at the end of which the nostrils are located. Huge incisors of the upper jaw, protruding from the mouth in the form of a pair of tusks, no fangs. Tusks grow throughout life. The molars function in shifts; when worn, it is replaced by the next. The trunk is formed by an elongated nose and upper lip: it is a muscular formation hollow inside, divided along the entire length by a longitudinal septum. At the end of the trunk there are only dorsal or dorsal and ventral grasping finger-like processes. The function of the trunk is diverse. It serves for breathing, smell, touch, helps with drinking and eating. An elephant picks grass, tree branches, fruits with its trunk and sends them to the mouth, sucks water into the trunk and then squirts it into the mouth. The limbs are high, columnar, five-fingered, each finger is dressed with a hoof. On the forelimbs there are 5, sometimes 4 hooves, on the hind legs - 3 or 4. On the sole under the skin there is a jelly-like springy padding, which ensures a silent step and movement on viscous soil.
The skin of an elephant is grayish in color, has a considerable thickness, almost naked. Its outer surface is uneven, covered with epidermal tubercles of various thicknesses. The epidermis has a cellular inner surface. Hair in adults is sparse, bristle-like. In newborns, the hairline is quite thick. In the temporal region there is a specific skin gland, which during the estrus period produces an abundant secret of a liquid consistency with bad smell.
One pair of nipples - in the chest area, between the front legs. The skull of an elephant is huge, but somewhat shortened. The brain is the largest in terms of mass among land mammals.
Indian elephants are common in South Asia, and African elephants are common in Africa.
Elephants inhabit forests and savannahs, sometimes tall grasses. Usually they do not go far from the water: Females, cubs and young males form herds of up to 30-400 heads. Adult males usually stay alone, sometimes joining herds. The size of the herd depends on the availability of food, water and disturbance. Active during daylight hours; rest during hot hours. They feed exclusively on plants, including leaves, fruits, bark, roots. Feeding migrations take place. They usually walk and can only run short distances. They swim well. Hearing is well developed, smell is excellent, vision is relatively weak. Well presented sound communication.
Pregnancy from 20 to 22 months. The female brings one, rarely two cubs. The mass of the newborn is about 100 kg. Shortly after birth, the cub follows its mother. Milk is sucked by mouth. Lactation lasts about two years. Sexual maturity occurs around the 9-20th year. Life expectancy is usually 50-80 years.
Elephants were heavily hunted for their highly valued tusks. As a result of direct destruction and the indirect impact of human activities, the number has fallen sharply and, as a rule, elephants are now numerous only in protected areas. Asian elephants have long been used as working animals.
Proboscis, apparently, had common ancestors with sirens and hyraxes. But already from the Paleocene, each of these groups developed independently. In the north of Siberia, in permafrost, sometimes find the carcasses of extinct elephants - mammoths who lived in Eurasia during the Ice Age.
At the Indian elephant - Elephas maximus only males have tusks; easily tamed, but in captivity, as a rule, does not breed. African elephant - Loxodonta africanus larger; females also have tusks; hard to tame. Extinct mammoth - Elephas primigenius had a thick coat; lived in the glacial regions.

Literature:
1. Course of zoology. B. A. Kuznetsov, A. Z. Chernov, L. N. Katonova. Moscow, 1989
2. Naumov N. P., Kartashev N. N. Vertebrate Zoology. - Part 2. - Reptiles, birds, mammals: A textbook for biologist. specialist. Univ. - M.: Higher. school, 1979. - 272 p., ill.

Proboscidea (lat. Proboscidea) - a detachment of placental mammals, owe their name to their main hallmark- trunk. The only representatives of proboscis today are the elephant family (Elephantidae). Extinct proboscis families include mastodons (Mammutidae).

Proboscis are distinguished not only by their trunk, but also by their unique tusks, as well as the largest size among all mammals on land. These peculiarities are by no means a hindrance, but, on the contrary, highly specialized adaptations. Once upon a time, many proboscis families lived on earth, some of which had four tusks. Today there is only a family of elephants in a very limited living space.

Proboscis formations were barely noticeable at the beginning and served proboscis ancestors living in swamps as a means to breathe underwater. Later, the trunks, with their many muscles, developed into finely sensitive grasping organs, which made it possible to pick both leaves from trees and grass in the steppes. Tusks during evolution reached 4 meters and had various shapes.

The African and Indian elephant are all that remain today from their many ancestors.

The head of an African elephant in profile looks sloping, in the form of a clearly defined angle; the ridge rises from the head to the shoulder blades, then drops and rises again to the hips.

The Indian elephant has pronounced brow ridges and a convex bump on the top of the head with a cleft in the middle; the back in the middle is higher than in the area of ​​the shoulder blades and hips.

Indian elephant

A powerful, massive animal, with a large broad-browed head, short neck, powerful body and columnar legs. Indian elephant smaller than its African counterpart. Its mass does not exceed 5 tons, and the height at the shoulders is 2.5-3 m. Unlike the African elephant, only males have tusks, but they are also 2-3 times shorter than the tusks of an African relative. The ears of the Indian elephant are smaller, stretched down and pointed.

Wild Indian elephants live in India, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Malacca, Sumatra and Sri Lanka. Due to the expansion of plantations and crops, the number of wild elephants is declining. Animals are killed as pests Agriculture despite the ban. The Indian elephant, like the African one, is listed in the IUCN Red List.

The Indian elephant lives in forest thickets, usually keeps in family groups of 10-20 animals, sometimes there are herds of up to 100 or more individuals. The leader of the herd is usually an old female.

Unlike the African relative, the Indian elephant is easily tamed and easy to train. In hard-to-reach swampy places, elephants are used as riding animals. Four people can fit on the back of an animal in a gazebo, not counting the driver sitting on the neck of an elephant. Elephants are able to carry up to 350 kg of cargo. Trained elephants not only carry logs in logging sites, but also stack them in a certain order, load and unload barges. Indian elephants buy zoos and circuses around the world.

Indian elephants are inferior in size to African bush elephants, but their size is also impressive - old individuals (males) reach a weight of 5.4 tons with a height of 2.5 - 3.5 meters. Females are smaller than males, weighing an average of 2.7 tons. The smallest is a subspecies from Kalimantan (weight about 2 tons). For comparison, the African savannah elephant weighs from 4 to 7 tons. The body length of the Indian elephant is 5.5-6.4 m, the tail is 1.2-1.5 m. The Indian elephant is more massive than the African one. The legs are thick and comparatively short; the structure of the soles of the feet resembles that of an African elephant - there is a special springy mass under the skin. There are five hooves on the front legs, four on the hind legs. The body is covered with thick wrinkled skin; skin color - from dark gray to brown. The thickness of the skin of an Indian elephant reaches 2.5 cm, but is very thin on inside ears, around the mouth and anus. The skin is dry and has no sweat glands, so caring for it is an important part of an elephant's life. Taking mud baths, elephants protect themselves from insect bites, sunburn and fluid loss. Dust baths, bathing and scratching on trees also play a role in skin hygiene. Often, depigmented pinkish areas are noticeable on the body of the Indian elephant, which give them a mottled appearance. Newborn baby elephants are covered with brownish hair, which is wiped off and thins with age, but even adult Indian elephants are more covered with coarse wool than African ones.

Albinos are very rare among elephants and are to a certain extent the object of worship in Siam. Usually they are only a little lighter and have a few even lighter spots. The best specimens were pale reddish-brown in color with a pale yellow iris and sparse white hair on the back.

The broad forehead, depressed in the middle and strongly convex laterally, has an almost vertical position; its bumps represent highest point body (an African elephant has shoulders). by the most hallmark, which distinguishes the Indian elephant from the African, is the relatively smaller size of the auricles. The ears of the Indian elephant never rise above the level of the neck. They are medium in size, irregularly quadrangular in shape, with several elongated tip and an inward-turned top edge. The tusks (elongated upper incisors) are significantly, 2-3 times smaller than those of the African elephant, up to 1.6 m long, weighing up to 20-25 kg. During the year of growth, the tusk increases by an average of 17 cm. They develop only in males, rarely in females. Among the Indian elephants there are males without tusks, which in India are called makhna (makhna). Especially often such males are found in the north-eastern part of the country; the largest number tuskless elephants have a population in Sri Lanka (up to 95%)

Just as people are right-handed and left-handed, different elephants are more likely to use the right or left tusk. This is determined by the degree of wear of the tusk and its more rounded tip.

In addition to the tusks, the elephant has 4 molars, which are replaced several times during life as they wear out. When changing, new teeth do not grow under the old ones, but further on the jaw, gradually pushing the worn teeth forward. In the Indian elephant, the molars change 6 times during their life; the latter erupt by about 40 years. When the last teeth are worn down, the elephant loses the ability to eat normally and dies of starvation. As a rule, this happens by the age of 70.

The elephant's trunk is a long process formed by the nose and upper lip fused together. A complex system of muscles and tendons gives it great flexibility and mobility, allowing the elephant to manipulate even small objects, and its volume allows it to collect up to 6 liters of water. The septum (septum), which separates the nasal cavity, also consists of numerous muscles. An elephant's trunk is devoid of bones and cartilage; the only cartilage is at its end, separating the nostrils. Unlike the African elephant, the trunk ends in a single dorsal finger-like process.

The differences between the Indian elephant and the African are a lighter color, medium-sized tusks that are available only in males, small ears, a convex humpbacked back without a "saddle", two bulges on the forehead and a single finger-like process at the end of the trunk. To the differences in internal structure 19 pairs of ribs are also included instead of 21, as in the African elephant, and structural features of the molars - the transverse plates of dentin in each tooth of the Indian elephant are from 6 to 27, which is more than that of the African elephant. There are 33 tail vertebrae instead of 26. The heart often has a double apex. Females can be distinguished from males by the two mammary glands located on the chest. The elephant's brain is the largest among land animals and reaches a weight of 5 kg.

"Diversity of mammals" - Teeth. Artiodactyls. cetaceans. Lizards. Single pass. marsupials. Bats. Aardvarks. proboscis. Primates. Questions. Diversity of mammals. Odd-toed ungulates. variety of class members. Squads of mammals. Insectivores. Lagomorphs. Pinnipeds. Predatory. Rodents.

"Rhinos" - True, since rhinos are very clumsy, a person can easily escape by changing the trajectory of movement. Unlike Asian species rhinos, African animals do not have folds in the skin. white rhino(lat. Ceratotherium simum). Black rhinoceros (lat. Diceros bicornis). Javan rhinoceros (lat. Rhinoceros sondaicus). Indian rhinos- unicorns. The black rhinoceros, like the white one, has two horns, one of which is smaller than the second.

"Elephants" - What are commonly referred to as fangs are actually just a pair of incisors in the upper jaw. Peculiar and dental system elephants. The elephant's leg is wonderfully arranged. Elephant skin is thick, almost devoid of hair, and indented with a frequent network of wrinkles. Therefore, in the course of evolution, the upper lip and nose fused together developed into an amazing appendage - the trunk. An elephant's trunk is much bigger than a human's hand.

"Mouse" - The tail is at least 90% in relation to the length of the body. House mice have well-developed sense organs. The diet also includes insects. Any available materials are used for the nest. Sense organs. Mouse. laboratory mice. Distribution and types. Weight - 12-30 g. Ears are rounded. Mouse skeletal tomogram. Often occupied by holes of other rodents: voles, gerbils. On the this moment About 130 subspecies of the house mouse have been described.

"Oviparous" - marsupial devil. Test. Gray oriental kangaroo. Possums. Baby kangaroo. Platypus. marsupials. Order of marsupials. The origin of mammals is pteriodont. Echidna. classification of mammals. Opposum. Class Mammals. Koala. Mammals that lay eggs and have a cloaca. Monotreme or oviparous. Marsupial flying squirrel. marsupial marten. marsupial wolf. The monotreme order is divided into two families: platypuses and echidnas.

"Higher Beasts" - Detachment Predatory. Useful animals. Consider the drawing. The amazing thing about animals. Let's collect material about bats. Put in the numbers. biological feature. Interview results. Bionics. Shrew. Pond nightlight. Animals. The bats. Wolf family. intermittent ultrasounds. Our favorites. collected material.

Detachment Proboscis

The detachment unites two types of elephants: African and Indian. These are the largest land mammals, which have a number of features. One of them is the presence of a trunk resulting from the fusion of the nose and upper lip. It serves as an organ of smell, touch and grasp. With a trunk, elephants sniff, feel, grab leaves, fruits, they can lift large trees, logs, and take small objects from the ground. The latter is possible due to the fact that there is a finger-like appendage at the end of the trunk.

Another feature of the proboscideans is the tusks, long curved incisors of the upper jaw that grow throughout life. There are no fangs, but there is one molar tooth on each side of the jaws. As the tooth wears out, it is replaced with a new one. The eyes are small, the ears are big. The body of these animals rests on thick legs with small hooves. The skin is thick and almost hairless, with hair in the form of a tuft at the end of a short tail.

African elephant

African elephant- the largest land mammal, the height of old males at the shoulders reaches 4 m, and the mass is 7.5 tons. Females are slightly smaller. All individuals have large ears and tusks.

Widespread south of the Sahara Desert. Currently, most of these animals live in national parks and reserves.

Elephants keep in small groups, herds, including old individuals, young and very small ones. At the head of the herd, the leader is an old elephant. The elephant family lives together, the adults work together to protect the cubs, help the wounded brothers, taking them away from the dangerous place.

The African elephant lives in the savannas, rare forests, feeds on plant foods, eats branches of trees and shrubs, collects their fruits, eats grass and succulent shoots cultivated plants. Elephants eat up to 100 kg of plant food per day.

Since ancient times, people have hunted elephants for their tusks - ivory, which is used for crafts and jewelry. The local population uses elephant meat for food. Elephants are tamed and used for various works(see textbook pic, p. 232).

The African elephant is listed in the IUCN Red List.

Indian elephant

Indian elephant inhabits forest areas South-East Asia. It is smaller than the African one, its mass does not exceed 5 tons, the height at the shoulders is 2.5–3 m. Only males have tusks, and they are about two times smaller than those of the African elephant. The ears of the Indian elephant are also smaller, they are somewhat extended down and pointed.

The Indian elephant lives in the forest, preferring areas with dense undergrowth of shrubs and especially bamboo. Most often it is kept in family groups of 10–20 animals, but sometimes there are herds of up to 100 or more individuals. He is at the head of the herd, just like the African elephants, an old experienced leader. Thanks to their extraordinary strength, elephants easily make their way through the thickets. rainforest, which is almost impassable for other animals. In summer, they climb high into the mountains along wooded paths. They feed on plant foods, tree leaves, fruits.

An elephant gives birth to one baby elephant once every 3–4 years, weighing about 90 kg.

Unlike the African Indian elephant, it is easily tamed and used as a working animal. In hard-to-reach swampy and forested areas, it is used as a riding animal. Elephants often work in logging, performing complex tasks. Indian elephants are kept in zoos, they participate in circus performances.