Palaeoloxodon namadicus

Palaeoloxodon namadicus is an extinct species of prehistoric elephant known from the Middle Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene of the Indian subcontinent, and possibly also elsewhere in Asia. The species grew larger than any living elephant, and is one of the largest known proboscideans alongside the mastodon "Mammut" borsoni. Speculative estimates based on a lost, fragmentary, femur – measured in the 19th century – has led some authors to suggest that P. namadicus may have been larger than Paraceratherium, generally considered the largest known land mammal ever.

Palaeoloxodon namadicus

Royroydeb · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PalaeoloxodonPBDB
Diet
grazer, browserPBDB, for Elephantidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Elephantidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 645 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 12 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 12 of 12 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 12 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.9 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence774 ka129 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

12 occurrences of Palaeoloxodon namadicus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

12 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Lower Narmada Deposit — 22.90°N, 77.83°EBabladanga — 23.50°N, 87.00°E

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The named rock units Palaeoloxodon namadicus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 10 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Palaeoloxodon namadicus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Palaeoloxodon namadicus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

123 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Palaeoloxodon namadicus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

8 references

Each of the 12 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Palaeoloxodon namadicus

Credit
Royroydeb
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Palaeoloxodon namadicus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPalaeoloxodon through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Falconer 1846)