Evolution of Elephants

Contrary to a common belief that mammoths, mastodons and other onetime(prenominal) elephants lived during the time of dinosaurs, it was 65 billion years ago that piddling mouse-like mammals buy the farmd the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Event (in which dinosaurs became extinct) and it was these small creatures that the modern sidereal day elephants evolutionary history can be traced linchpin to. therefore the commencement exercise base living creature that begins to fit the elephants we know straight off didnt appear until five million years after the extinction of dinosaurs. Placental mammals or subclass Eutheria be the currently predominant form of terrestrial vitality on earth and are a diverse group, embrace nearly 4000 species according to some(prenominal) http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu and http://www.nhc.ed.ac.uk. The sister group of placental mammals is Metatheria, which includes Marsupials (the autochthonic difference being that placental mammals youn g develop to a relatively mature stage within a uterus attached to the mother by a placenta.) Mammals, like marsupials, hold up their young with milk and care for them until they can sufficiently hold up on their own.

One of the four major divergences from this group Afrotheria (diagram 1) was the first to diverge from the other major groups of placental mammals and is now a unique group of placental mammals of which the elephant is the more or little studied and most visible species in many palm including ecology, behavior and genetics. diagram 1 (Demonstration of the evolution of elephants from the Afrot heria group) Because of incompatible evo! lutionary pathway (shown in the above diagram) and diversions from other groups, elephants develop in subtly different ways from many other placental mammals. They are distinct from other placentals in having parts of the hips, the fastness arms, and the trunk vertebrae change state early whilst the neck vertebrae and fingers lapidify later. About one tertiary of the way through an elephants gestation period, ninety per centum of all skeletal elements have started...If you penury to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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