A Tale of Evolution and Adaptation

Before the evolution of modern elephants, their early relatives included several species that often shared their environment and adapted to feeding on different plants. This image depicts a landscape in Kenya in the Middle Miocene (about 15 million years ago), where a deinotheriid proboscidean (Prodeinotherium hobleyi, on the left foreground) and a shovel-tusked amebelodontid proboscidean (Protanancus macinnesi, behind Prodeinotherium) were feeding on leaves and branches from trees and shrubs, whereas a choerolophodont Afrochoerodon kisumuensis (in the background) fed on grasses in the…