Dinosaurs were not the only prehistoric animals to become extinct. Millions of years ago, many elephant-like animals roamed the earth. Over the years, these creatures adapted to their changing environment. For example, they developed different kinds of trunks and tusks depending on what kind of food was available. Sometimes the animals could not adapt quickly enough to changes in their environment. When this happened, the animals became extinct.
The moeritherium was among the first elephant-like animals. It lived about 60 million years ago. The moeritherium had neither trunk nor tusks and was about as large as a pig.
The deinotherium lived between 24 million and 2 million years ago. It had backward-curving tusks that grew down from its lower jaw. Platybelodons lived during the same time as the deinotherium. They had huge scoop-shaped teeth in their lower jaws, which were probably used to pull up water plants.
Mammoths lived from at least 4 million to 10,000 years ago. They were enormous animals with teeth like those of modern-day elephants. Mammoths that lived during the Ice Age had long hair on their bodies, which helped protect them from the extreme cold.
Today, there are two kinds of elephants – the African elephant and the Indian elephant, also called the Asian elephant. In a million years, these and many of today’s animals will be gone. There may be many new kinds of animals.
Picture Credit : Google