Proboscis mammal species. Proboscis mammals. Representatives of the Proboscis order and their features. forest african elephant
What are proboscis mammals? Representatives of these animals appeared millions of years ago. Find out how many species exist now, which ones they have.
proboscis mammals
When the word "proboscis" usually arises only a few associations - elephants and mammoths. And rightly so, because the proboscis squad includes only the elephant family. Proboscis mammals appeared in equatorial Africa approximately 45 million years ago. Then their range expanded to Africa, Eurasia, North and South America. Their distant ancestors are considered mastodons and mammoths.
Elephants are now common in Southeast Asia and Africa. They live in savannahs and tropical forests. They are also real long-livers. Elephants die at the age of 60-80 years. They live in groups consisting of several females and cubs. Males only occasionally join them to find a mating partner.
For the sake of food, they are able to walk hundreds of kilometers. Elephants eat up to 500 kilograms of plant food per day, drink up to 300 liters of water. At the same time, animals digest no more than 40% of food. The basis of the diet is leaves, grass, fruits and tree bark.
Structural features
Their size is impressive. Elephants are huge herbivores with an average height of 2.5 to 4 meters and a length of up to 4.5 meters. Proboscis mammals have a gigantic body compared to humans, a large head and large ears. The gray skin is covered with sparse vegetation and fine wrinkles.
Huge ears help to cope with the heat by regulating the receipt and release of heat in the body. Additional cooling occurs when the ears are flapping. Thanks to these powerful locators, elephants are excellent at distinguishing sounds at a frequency of 1 kHz.
Their incisor teeth are greatly enlarged and are called tusks. For humans, they are a valuable material, so animals are often killed for the sake of ivory. Despite their impressive size, elephants walk quietly and softly due to the fat pad on their feet, which increases the foot area.
Why does an elephant need a trunk?
The trunk is an important and irreplaceable organ of elephants. It was formed by the union of the upper lip and nose. Equipped with muscles and tendons that allow the animal to use it instead of hands. With the help of this powerful and flexible tool, proboscis mammals can drag branches, logs, and pick fruits from trees.
The trunk also works as a sense organ. The nostrils located at its end help to smell odors. Thanks to the sensitivity of the trunk, elephants feel objects in order to recognize them. At a watering place, water is sucked up with a trunk, then sent to the mouth. The sounds made by this organ allow elephants to communicate.
Elephant species
Elephants are represented by only three species - African savannah, Indian, Forest. The latter is dwarfed in comparison to its brothers, reaching only two and a half meters in height. The body of the animal is covered with thick brown hair. It has rounded ears, which is why it is called round-eared. Together with the savannah elephant, the forest elephant is listed in the Red Book.
The African savannah is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest mammal in the world. The length of his body sometimes reaches seven meters, and the height at the shoulders - four. The average weight of males reaches 7 tons, while females have two tons less. They live mainly in reserves and national parks, some are common in the desert regions of Namibia and Mali, which is why they are called desert elephants.
Indian, or slightly smaller than the savannah. Its habitual habitat is bamboo thickets, tropical and deciduous forests. He is the only representative of the genus of Indian elephants and is considered an endangered species. There are several of its subspecies that live in Sri Lanka, Sumatra, India, China, Cambodia, and the island of Borneo.
Proboscis - a detachment of mammals, which includes the elephant family and their extinct species relatives (mastodons, mammoths, dinoteria). A distinctive feature of the detachment is the presence of a trunk in all its representatives. Marshes became the distribution area of the ancestors of mammals. Therefore, as a result of evolution, they had a device for breathing in water - a trunk: its initial dimensions were quite small compared to today's elephant trunks. Later, the respiratory organ, equipped with powerful muscles, began to be used for grasping purposes, with its help, animals tore leaves and fruits from trees, grass, and on a hot day they made a shower from water or mud.
The trunk is a fused and elongated nose and upper lip. It is driven by about fifty thousand muscles.
Another feature that unites the squad is thick skin that resists water pressure, allowing the animal to breathe normally. Proboscis tusks are modified teeth: fangs or incisors. With their help, animals remove the bark from trees, dig up salt deposits in the ground, and also protect themselves from enemies. Elephants have two tusks, represented by incisors. An extinct species, the mastodons, had four. They grow all their lives; during the excavations, tusks were found that reached a length of 4 m.
At present, the proboscis order includes only the elephant family, which in turn is divided into two species: Asian and African elephants. These are the largest mammals, all members of the family are herbivores. The main habitat of animals are meadows, but due to their unpretentiousness in the choice of food, they can be found in desert areas, in forests, and in swampy areas. African elephants are slightly taller than their Asian relatives, females and males (in Asians only males) have tusks. Elephants have no hair. The tail is poorly developed. During the movement, the cub, in order to keep up with the herd, clings to the tail of an adult relative. Intestinal bacteria help animals to digest plant foods, but they only cope with this task by 60%.
Option 2
Proboscis are mammals that have a distinctive feature from other animals - a trunk. The only representatives of animals belonging to this class are elephants. There are many interesting facts about them that every connoisseur should know.
Elephants are one of a kind, they are considered giants because they are about 4 meters tall and weigh up to 7 tons. There are also smaller individuals, whose growth is up to 3 m, but the African elephant weighs about 8 tons and looks like a giant. The skin of elephants is thick - 2 cm, the skin of adults is wrinkled, without hairline. When a cub is born, it has hairline, which disappears over time.
The head of an elephant is round, his ears serve him not only as a means of perceiving sound, but they also protect the elephant from the heat, when it becomes necessary to cool down, he simply waves his ears. Although the elephant is a gigantic animal, it walks silently, but it cannot jump.
The trunk plays a huge role, it performs a whole host of functions, for starters, it is worth noting that the trunk is equipped with a large number of muscles and tendons. When an elephant wants to bathe, he draws water into his trunk and waters himself during the heat. Also on the tip of the trunk are the lips and nose, unique, isn't it? An elephant gets food with its trunk, feeds itself, feeds its offspring.
Elephant tusks grow throughout their lives, so that the massiveness and length of the tusks can determine the approximate age of the animal. The elephant's tail is long, almost to the very ground, at the end of the tail there are dense long hairs in the form of a brush, just with this brush the elephant fights off flies.
Although the elephant is a giant, he is an excellent swimmer, if you look at his speed while running, he runs at speeds up to 50 km. per hour, and quietly goes 5 km. in hour. These animals are among the centenarians, elephants live on average up to 65 years, in some cases even longer.
In captivity, elephants rarely breed, because there are no favorable conditions for this, such as temperature and freedom. In the wild, an elephant can bring offspring every 4 years. By the age of 12, the female is ready to bear a baby, and the males reach sexual maturity by the 15th year of life. The female elephant bears the cub for 22 months, before giving birth, the female leaves her herd, but does not go far from it, several elephants go with her to protect her and the newborn baby from predators. Sometimes, if there are difficulties during childbirth, elephants help to stretch the baby. Basically, a baby is born alone, it is rare when you can find that an elephant gave birth to two elephants at once.
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Brief description of the 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 produces an abundant secret of a liquid consistency with an unpleasant odor during estrus.
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. Sound communication is well presented.
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 the permafrost, carcasses of extinct elephants are sometimes found - mammoths that 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.
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. The fingers are covered with a common skin, but visible from the outside. On the forelimbs 5, sometimes 4 hooves, on the hind legs - 3 or 4.
Elephant skin is grayish in color, has a significant thickness. 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 produces an abundant secret of a liquid consistency with an unpleasant odor during estrus.
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.
They 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. Sound communication is well presented.
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 50-60 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.