Talk:Forest Elephant
From Academic Kids
Someone want to fix the line:
although adult Savanna Elephants, on average, have 14 toenails (four toes on each forefoot and three on each hindfoot), and Savanna Elephants average 18 toenails (5 front and 4 rear),
Who knows which is which, please?
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War elephants
War elephant says that Hannibal's elephants were Forest ones. Is it confirmed? Were they natural north of Sahara? -- Error 01:48, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)
They belonged to a now extinct species, (or subspecies) called pharaoensis.Dan Koehl 02:33, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Species or Subspecies?
This is a funny story. In the 2001 Science article where they supposedly showed that savannah elephant and forest elephant are two distinct species, they actually presented evidence that they are one species. But they still say they are two species. Quote: "Large genetic distance, multiple genetically fixed nucleotide site differences, morphological and habitat distinctions, and extremely limited hybridization of gene flow between forest and savannah elephants support the recognition and conservation management of two African species: Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis." -- In other words: our DNA study actually found evidence that it's one species (there is limited gene flow), but we'd rather ignore this evidence and instead say they are two different species because it's better for conservation and also makes a more interesting paper that way. As far as I know, "large genetic distance" has exactly nothing to do with the question whether they are distinct species or not... If there is gene flow between them, they probably shouldn't even be considered as different subspecies. -- Am I missing something? Chl 05:02, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I suppose its a question of interpretions. In fact, the crossing between the both genus Loxodonta and Elephas is fertile, indicating it should maybe be one genus. Lately it seems DNA research slowly seems to "take" over" reg forking of species, cause with its tecnique is possible to messure genetical distance between populations. Dan Koehl 17:42, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
