National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Rabbit-Size Elephant Ancestor Found -- Oldest Known


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

Modern-day elephants, such as these African elephants in Chad, may trace their ancestry back to a 60-million-year-old rabbit-size creature found in Morocco, a June 2009 study says.

Though the prehistoric proto-elephant may not have had a trunk or big, flapping ears, it appears to have had the beginnings of tusks, researchers say.

Photograph by Michael Nichols/NGS