How The Elephant Got Its Trunk

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Long-jawed proboscideans were doing pretty well for themselves. That is, until they were all rapidly replaced with proboscideans with long, flexible trunks instead: mammoths, mastodons, and our modern elephants.What suddenly made long jaws such a liability? Well it looks like we can thank a changing climate for the evolution of the elephant’s trunk.
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Опубликовано:

16 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 439

@complexly 6 дней назад

Did you know that you can get your very own prehistoric elephant figure? Find out how at complexly.info/mammoths

@JeffreyGoddin 6 дней назад

The Natural History Museum was always my favorite gift shop in school, shout out to Cleveland, Ohio, and its industrial age philanthropists for Severance Hall, the Art Museum, the Botanical Garden and sure I'll count the Crawford Museum. And yes, I had a mammoth from that shop.

@trichogaster1183 6 дней назад

been on a streak of sending cute elephant videos back and forth with my mom, gonna throw her a curveball

@Weretooth 6 дней назад

😂😂 Aw love that

@chiddchid6364 6 дней назад

😂

@rockhound4080 6 дней назад

Send us her reaction, lol

@leoornstein3963 6 дней назад

Do it

@erukaseven 6 дней назад

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@forthrightgambitia1032 6 дней назад

Given their evolutionary history it now makes more sense the hyrax is their closest relative.

@LimeyLassen 6 дней назад

The hyrax sure missed the bus on that one, didn't it?

@norarivkis2513 6 дней назад

I thought the manatee was their closest relative, and the hyrax after that?

@kathleenwoods8416 6 дней назад

@@norarivkis2513 Its actually an almost even split between the three according to genetic analysis, which implies a 3 way split between the families at about the same time. Which is pretty rare to confirm in extent species.

@norarivkis2513 6 дней назад

@@kathleenwoods8416 That's really cool; thanks for telling me. I knew the hyrax was one of the elephant's nearest relatives, but not as much detail as you have.

@vincentx2850 6 дней назад

@@LimeyLassen It's worth noting that like elephants, hyraxes is a shadow of themselves when it comes to diversity. Throughout a significant part of their evolution history, hyraxes are much more diverse and seems to always have a couple of large, sheep-sized and even cow-sized hyraxes. Among the latest of them, Postschizotherium, lived in Eurasia till the early Pleistocene and shared the landscape with mammoth, sabretooth and early humans.

@kevinmorgan2968 6 дней назад

Given than we have now had an episode about giraffes having long necks because of grass not trees, and elephants having trunks for grass not trees, can we finally get an episode about how the rhino actually evolved its horn to climb trees not eat grass? Is that how this works?

@elgatitodraven7501 6 дней назад

actually the long neck of giraffes ended up being about sex

@dnapolren 6 дней назад

Humans are also a product of grasslands..

@ancientswordrage 6 дней назад

Yes

@AncientWildTV 6 дней назад

lol but their interactions with the ground and other rhinos, as well as their surroundings, have shaped their evolutionary adaptations more so than their activity in trees.

@paleozoey 5 дней назад

there were tree-browsing rhinos in the past like paraceratherium, so you aren't far off; they were hornless, however.

@jSlazer1988 6 дней назад

"How X got it's Y" are my favorite video titles because you know it's going to be a comfy ride.

@coreyrobinson8209 6 дней назад

At first, I thought you were talking about an XY chromosome origin video. 😁

@cutielovely6080 6 дней назад

Those are some serious Hapsburg jaws...

@FunkyWombat 6 дней назад

Underrated comment!

@nihilusdirus 6 дней назад

Shakurel(ephant)

@jonasinsinga4309 6 дней назад

😂😂😂

@likebot. 6 дней назад

Too soon!

@HowardLogan-gv5kc 5 дней назад

So they also ruled over the Holy Roman Empire? 🤔

@sanguillotine 6 дней назад

I like that the video starts with total silence for about two seconds with a still image of that freaky looking animal. I’m not being sarcastic, I genuinely enjoy that.

@anotherdrummer2 6 дней назад

I enjoyed this truncated look at elephant evolution

@guodzillakaiju5683 День назад

Oh, that pun! Tusk, tusk, tusk!!!

@dangerfly 6 дней назад

Elephants are so familiar to the point of being mundane yet so weird at the same time.

@MangaBottle 6 дней назад

Some of the extinct elephants make Dumbo's pink elephants look like just another Tuesday!

@EmiStar070 6 дней назад

Omg, don't even mention that nightmare sequence 🫣

@kitkatboard 6 дней назад

@@EmiStar070 I feel like the only kid who loved that sequence, because it was so funny looking and colorful 😭

@EmiStar070 6 дней назад

@@kitkatboard I first saw it when I was like 2 and I found it terrifying

@kitkatboard 6 дней назад

@@EmiStar070 I was like 1 or 2 but I think my brain wasn't developped enough to be scared 😂

@AskMia411 6 дней назад

IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!! I'm so excited, I've been asking for this video for forever!!! I had no idea if anyone at Eons ever saw my comments, over a bunch of different videos, but it looks like they did! Thanks you all for the consistently amazing content, you feed my need for prehistoric knowledge!!! ❤❤❤

@justin880 6 дней назад

Today is about you. Congrats!

@chiddchid6364 6 дней назад

🎉🎉🎉 congrats stranger

@GSBarlev 6 дней назад

@@justin880 The bulk of this episode was set during the *Miacene,* after all.

@thathaslage 6 дней назад

You're welcome.

@AskMia411 6 дней назад

@@GSBarlev OMG that's hilarious, thank you!!!!

@wikyWargaming 6 дней назад

"With great trunk comes great responsibility." -Uncle Babar

@veggieboyultimate 6 дней назад

PBS Eons should really do more evolution of modern animals and organisms

@ancientswordrage 6 дней назад

Aren't they called eons cos it's about things from eons ago?

@dudewrapsupreme 5 дней назад

@@ancientswordrage we're currently living through an eon ourselves so i can't see a difference

@noahberan6498 5 дней назад

I wanna know why parrots became a thing

@rezank5859 6 дней назад

-Why the long face? - climate change.

@johnbreen5668 6 дней назад

And not a SUV or coal fired power plant in site.

@herecomesthescience 6 дней назад

@@johnbreen5668Everything contributes to climate change; it's just a matter of how much.

@AlleonoriCat 6 дней назад

@@johnbreen5668 climate is changing naturally, sure. But never at the near instant (in geological time) rate like it did after the industrial revolution

@troyjardine5850 6 дней назад

@@johnbreen5668: Nice oppinion, did Exon Mobile pay it for you? Or was it Dennis Prager and Ben Shappiro?

@GrimJackal 6 дней назад

@@johnbreen5668 Name a single scientist that said climate change wasn't a thing before the Industrial Revolution.

@GSBarlev 6 дней назад

With all of the Proboscidian recreations I've seen¹, I'm not sure why it never clicked for me before that elephant trunks didn't _grow_ as much as lower jaws _shrunk_ compared to its direct ancestors. *Mind. Blown.* ¹Shout-out for my shovel-faced son _Platybeladon_ at 4:13

@joehopfield 6 дней назад

Modern african elephants are born with 6 sets of teeth to deal with their abrasive diet... I wonder when that trait evolved relative to long faces and trunks.

@frankibianchi6188 4 дня назад

In 7 days

@BruceWaynesaysLandBack 6 дней назад

1:27 thank you for the audio production quality. PBS eons videos are basically short documentaries and I love it!

@radioraffa 6 дней назад

Like the purple mammoth skull earrings 😁

@OrdonWolf 6 дней назад

Finally, Platybelodon in an Eons video. Praise the Scööp!!

@antonsimmons8519 6 дней назад

I was just at work a few hours ago, thinking about this exact evolutionary question. "How/why did elephants evolve that awesome trunk?" Immediate smile to my face upon seeing the subject of the video. Neat stuff. Lots to absorb. Thanks.

@Tzeise 6 дней назад

The tusk earrings were a fire touch!

@aaronlaluzerne6639 6 дней назад

Now there should be a sequel video on why elephants evolved so many different and bizzare teeth and tusks.

@TheAnimalKingdom-tq3sz 6 дней назад

"How do Elephants get their trunks?" Bitten by crocodiles, of course. With the help of giant pythons coiling their hindlimbs!

@AdamYJ 6 дней назад

Is that from Just So Stories byKipling?

@dadefrost2059 6 дней назад

@@AdamYJeither that or Aesop's fables

@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 6 дней назад

@@AdamYJ at least Kipling published a story like that - there may be older versions, too

@kaesees 6 дней назад

@@AdamYJ Yes, specifically the chapter "The Elephant's Child" :) Nb. the just-so type stories are in both "Just So Stories" proper and "The Second Jungle Book".

@astina7574 6 дней назад

They go to the store and buy them.

@jv_likes_plants 6 дней назад

Yess! We love you PBS Eons

@TheBeetrootman 6 дней назад

Nice I was on a wikipedia binge about proboscideans yesterday

@karenroot450 6 дней назад

Yeah. Elephants!! Wow this was told so well. Great pictures and fabulous rendition of early species. Beautiful presenter also. Love your style!! Love this channel! Thanks so much! Elephants have always been one of my favorite animals!

@Atlas-pn6jv 6 дней назад

Last time I was this early it was the Hadean

@worfoz 5 дней назад

Nobody remembers that anymore.

@RavinRay 6 дней назад

Ooh, the very first genus depicted, the lower-tusk only, forest-dwelling _Deinotherium_ wasn't discussed. A missed opportunity! 10:50 Three species? That's right, the African elephant _Loxodonta africana_ is now divided into two species: the African bush elephant _L. africana_ and the African forest elephant _L. cyclotis_ which is smaller.

@FluidKaos 6 дней назад

Thanks! I was confused when she said three. I thought Asian and African were the only species. Learned something new! Thank you stranger! 😀

@noahberan6498 5 дней назад

Pigmy elephants too right?

@Weretooth 6 дней назад

Omg 2.99 million subs!!! Let’s hope this video gets you to the milestone!! Congratulations 🎊 💚

@monteagudoabeezekieljardie7884 6 дней назад

Thank you PBS Eons. I love this video. I love elephants. They are my favorite animal. Thank you so much.

@Hannah_Em 6 дней назад

honestly obsessed with the mammoth picture at 0:50 which has appeared in a few videos; why does it appear to be a poseable action figure?

@karonuva 6 дней назад

Because it is, I believe they worked with or helped fund the people who made it. They've talked about it in previous videos

@Hannah_Em 6 дней назад

@@karonuva Oh that's really cool, I forgot about that!

@BaltanTwo 6 дней назад

It’s not made YET, it’s a crowdfund currently running on BackerKitx

@mistymarshall5438 5 дней назад

Because they're working on a prehistoric elephant figure toy line with Creative Beast Studio. They've just released some Mammoth figures and they might do Platybelodon next. They're even asking for backers. I think there's a link in the "posts" section of the channel.

@caseyleichter2309 4 дня назад

"Holy Hannibal! Where'd you get that mandible?" Platybeladon is my fave proto-elephant. That earth-mover lower jaw (yeah, I know: grass-cutter not earth-mover) left me gobsmacked the first time I saw it. Thank you for giving them some Eons love!

@madbrowndog4887 5 дней назад

"The lower jaw just kept getting longer, and even more dramatic." Ah, yes, that would be the Habsburgompotherium".

@carmogoncalvesleal2254 5 дней назад

😂

@jakegarvin7634 6 дней назад

Proboscidians: From long jaws to long schnoz

@jenkcomedy 6 дней назад

The Shovel Trunkers is going to be the name of my new Punk Band

@Oltoir 6 дней назад

What a fun ride that was! Thanks for all the hard work you all do to continue this free education 🎉

@korbell1089 6 дней назад

10:40 I think this picture is funny...a group of apex predators versus an elephant who says, "I go where I want!"😂😉

@calliss510 2 дня назад

0:57 This guy poppin in from the side nearly had me spitting my drink.

@TwinightCord 6 дней назад

Proboscideans are some of my favorite fossils to study! This is awesome!

@takenname8053 6 дней назад

Elephant version of "Let me do it for you" meme

@akirakiel6142 6 дней назад

Paleontology always reminds me how precious the existence of other beings living with us today is. Elephants are sublime animals, one of the last giants on earth, and I am grateful that I am living in a world with them. I hope that many generations after me will be able to see them too...

@Sticks017 5 дней назад

I love how frequently you guys have been putting out videos lately. They are great! The more the better!

@xwiick 6 дней назад

Thanks for all the hard work on these videos!

@danerdnerdos7384 17 часов назад

Those earrings are outstanding

@AbhishekKumar-zq8nb 6 дней назад

A little description about how the modern 3 species of elephants originate and at what point, could have been interesting. I always thought Indian elephants originate when the indian subcontinent divided from Africa, therefore giving rise to shorter elephants due to island dwarfism. But now I am not sure if this is true.

@matthewanipen2418 6 дней назад

This was a great video thank you! I think another thing left out about the trunk is that it can literally suck up water and then pour it into the elephant's mouth. When you think of giant animals whose heads are so far from the ground like giraffes and the like, being able to have the water come to your mouth would be amazing and maybe life saving. Who knows what amazing things extinct animals used their relatively unusual extremities for!

@juliusapriadi 6 дней назад

themed earpieces are tight! Thanks for the great video.

@caldius1 6 дней назад

You guys really need to do an episode on the rise of grasses.

@katarzynaskoropada-bartkow7670 День назад

I've been waiting for this episode for a long time, thank you!

@micahbush5397 6 дней назад

Now what I wonder: Will convergent evolution one day lead tapirs developing long trunks?

@sanguillotine 6 дней назад

If there’s an open niche and we don’t kill them off directly or indirectly, then my guess is yeah

@daphneloose5880 6 дней назад

now we need to protect the elephants we have left on earth. that means NO MORE POACHING for their tusks!!

@crapsound 6 дней назад

The transitional periods seem terrifying.

@Zaxares 6 дней назад

Life on earth seems to be a never-ending series of "Life was wonderful! ... Until things changed." Our own unique evolutionary adaptation, our intelligence and big brains, gives us a great advantage in that we can simply make tools to compensate for a changing world, but I have to wonder if something far bigger than even our tool-making can surpass awaits us in the future, and our days too are numbered. :/

@LimeyLassen 6 дней назад

It would probably feel normal if you were living in it. People don't exactly open the window and say "huh feels colder than it was 10,000 years ago".

@anasevi9456 6 дней назад

Thank you for another lovely minidoco! I always wondered why Elephant had such wild wild looking ancestors given they came from such humble beginnings.

@TragoudistrosMPH 6 дней назад

It's humbling to see how diverse they were to how few there are now...

@64thecaptain 6 дней назад

Don't whales and dolphins have elongated faces?

@Woodswalker96 6 дней назад

Yes, but they aren’t exactly the typical mammal either, even earlier in their evolution. But I guess it’s all relative as to what you’d define as a “long-face”.

@olorin4317 6 дней назад

Perhaps they used them to dig up and loosen roots and tubers. While grabbing the foliage from above with the trunk.

@keith3761 5 дней назад

Having a trunk to reach down to eat also keeps your head high so you can look around and spot predators trying to eat you and your young easier.

@sanguillotine 6 дней назад

0:23 what’s going on with this guy’s hooves? It’s like he’s fading away.

@sike2567 6 дней назад

probably it's ai generated

@sanguillotine 6 дней назад

@@sike2567 I hope not

@xaerache 6 дней назад

The grasses in the background don’t match up :/

@xaerache 6 дней назад

After much research I can confirm that they linked the original artwork of this in the references doc. It appears that some blur effect has been accidentally done on the top and bottom of the picture. Probably just some editing mistake.

@archerelms 4 дня назад

A lot of these images seem to be edited in a way similar to "portrait mode" on most phones these days, where the animal is in focus and everything else is blurred, and it happened to blur the feet too. Google Lens found me the original image so I can agree it doesn't appear to be AI art and it didn't originally look like that

@Whomobile 5 дней назад

I'm never unseeing the Trunk as a weird elongated upper lip now

@cadenbelcher3105 6 дней назад

Sweet love eons

@frothywalrus 6 дней назад

the hair style 11/10

@moratiwawaka 6 дней назад

No, it was because of their insatiable curiosity!

@Myself-yf5do 5 дней назад

0:15 Her second pair of teeth are coming in, and her parents think it's cute...it's not! It's f*ckin' horrifying!

@MidnightAssass1n 4 дня назад

‘I understood that reference’

@davidt3563 6 дней назад

Hehe the elongated face ones are cute AF. I want one.

@gmeng811 6 дней назад

Love you guys

@CaptHollister 6 дней назад

Normally, I never comment on the dress or appearance of presenters, but I have to make an exception this time to say that those are the coolest, most a-propos earrings for the subject at hand.

@CelibateCetologist 5 дней назад

7:46 You can see examples of this when the Okavango Delta floods. Elephants wade through the water and rip up any plants they can get their trunks on. It’s pretty cool.

@rwarren58 6 дней назад

Those earrings are a masterpiece.

@jaredquinney204 4 дня назад

What a bunch of interesting trunks

@leeborocz-johnson1649 6 дней назад

They obviously got their trunks at Target.

@local3433 6 дней назад

Wow lame

@leeborocz-johnson1649 6 дней назад

@@local3433 yeah I know, personally I'd rather get trunks from a designer boutique or a vintage shop or something like that.

@lucasotis9525 6 дней назад

Hey Eons? Could you ask the host where they got those rad earrings? Mad respect for the Ms. Frizzle move with themed earrings while giving a fantasticly thorough presentation. Hurt a little at the end there, we really are lucky to still have the few elephants we have today given how many species didn't make it and the pressures they have today :/

@gamermthegreat8229 6 дней назад

i thought Moeritherium lasted only 2 million years not 20 million?

@TarkMcCoy 6 дней назад

Would you believe; A snake got a little constipated and started putting on weight...

@NKULTRA94 5 дней назад

I can usually wrap my head around most artistic recreations of extinct animals, but anytime I see a picture of Platybeladon, there is a part of my brain that feels like it is actively rejecting what I'm seeing. It's like looking at a lovecraftian horror. My mind just fails to make sense of its anatomy.

@rsbohn 6 дней назад

Team Gomphothere!

@primrosevale1995 6 дней назад

Would’ve been funny if the African Forest Elephant just happened to re-evolve those shovel tusks.

@hsdinoman2267 6 дней назад

does this relate to your little backerKit prehistoric elephant project Edit, i see that it does, fingers crossed we win this campaign

@196cupcake 6 дней назад

I'd like to know why there's a difference between number of African and Asian elephant "fingers" at the end of trunks. The African ones have two while the Asian ones have one. An arbitrary population split is the best I can think of. I'd expect them to be the same, whichever is number is most advantageous.

@KenikoB 6 дней назад

Probably arbitrary yeah. I tried to look it up but all I can find is that the two-finger trunk is better for grasping and more dextrous, but Asian elephants curl their trunks instead of grasping. While animals will tend to evolve towards features that are beneficial, they first need to evolve those features. It's totally possible that some African elephants evolved that feature by chance and because it was beneficial it stuck around, while the Asian elephants never evolved it in the first place. Or they did, but it died out before it could spread.

@lauroralei 5 дней назад

Just remember evolution doesn't select for advantages, it selects against disadvantages. So generally a lot of variation and mutation can co-exist, especially for minor or superficial features

@196cupcake 5 дней назад

@@lauroralei If that was the main factor I would have expected both populations to have a mix of one and two "fingers"

@lauroralei 5 дней назад

@@196cupcake why? They've been separate species for millions of years. Changes don't just randomly pop in and out each generation. The point is that in evolution you don't look at what advantage a species moved toward, you look at what disadvantage they moved away from. And even then, sometimes evolution will just keep tolerating features that don't impede survival so there isn't a single clear reason.

@paularanya8726 6 дней назад

Always wondered about these. Nice

@EryxUK 4 дня назад

Fascinating. Thanks for another great video.

@Zueilen 4 дня назад

Isn't it curious that these guys had the same migration pattern as early humans? Well just so much earlier..

@taqyon 6 дней назад

Love you guys ❤

@LeoDomitrix 6 дней назад

"How many ways can we mess with the rules?" they asked. You gonna say no to an animal like that?!

@jso6790 6 дней назад

Loved seeing the pics from the Backerkit.. I am excited to get mine. Also, great job with video, as always.

@StonedtotheBones13 6 дней назад

Platybelodon is one of my fave prehistoric weirdos 😊

@regis_c 6 дней назад

Elephant Gameplay vs. Elephant Lore

@kaseywashington-y2k 6 дней назад

Platybelodon is simply hilarious 😂😂😂😂

@taylorslade6978 3 дня назад

Also, if you cut grass vs root it, it'll regrow allowing elephants to graze cyclically. The elephants that would root out the grass would lose their food source and quickly fall off selecting for probiscus directed eating and a more a symbiotic relationship with the grasses. Leaves on trees and water plants on the other hand wouldn't select for this.

@BZAKether 2 дня назад

I love Michelle's earrings.

@michaelnewton6789 4 дня назад

I feel like shovel tuskers are frequently drawn wrong. When you look at the skull of platybelodon for example, the tusks are much closer together than in most reconstructions, leave little to no room for a modern style elephant trunk. I feel like it probably looked more like a prehensile upper lip, I think it's unlikely the tusks were permanently exposed like in later proboscidians.

@kjpcgaming9296 6 дней назад

I love PBS Eons

@martinryan2370 6 дней назад

I thought the title was Why the elephant got drunk 😂 You would if you. Had them big ears 😂😂😂😂

@itchywitch5923 6 дней назад

I am always SO JEALOUS of her earrings. She’s so pretty and has great style. Geologist nerdy goals!!

@TalesofKaimere 3 дня назад

Great work as always! Where does the mastodon, a browsing specialist with parallel evolution of short jaws, fit into this? The idea makes a lot of sense for grazing lineages but from what I understand mastodon and its ancestors never even dabbled in grass based on coprolite studies, tooth wear, and stomach contents. What were they up to? We may simply not yet know but such a reasonable explanation for the trend in the mammoth and elephant lineage begs the question for mastodon (and I think Stegodon independently followed the trend too)

@ChrissieBear 6 дней назад

Deinotherium is my favorite proboscidean. That chin is crazy.

@laurachapple6795 6 дней назад

I always look forward to the pun at the end of these.

@madderhat5852 6 дней назад

Bit of a cliché but elephants are my favourite anima.

@Flesh_Wizard 2 дня назад

0:15 Goofy ahh elephant💀

@DeinoWolfhybridhero 6 дней назад

Beautiful video! These ancient cousins of elephant are often underrated and is talking ever too little about them (also in some paleontologist texts). I hope in a future video dedicated entirely to one of my favorite :Deinotherium