Elephantidae is a family of large, herbivorous proboscidean mammals which includes the living elephants (belonging to the genera Elephas and Loxodonta), as well as a number of extinct genera like Mammuthus (mammoths) and Palaeoloxodon.

Family groups tend to be small, with only one or two adult females and their offspring. A group containing more than two cows and their offspring is known as a "joint family". Malay elephant populations have even smaller family units and do not reach levels above a bond group.

An elephant family is ruled by a matriarch (older female), and generally consists of her female offspring and their young. In Africa, a basic family unit consists of 6 to 12 animals, however, families of 12 to 20 elephants are quite common.

Elephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant).

There are two living relatives of this group, the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) and the larger African Savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana). These two elephants are closely related to the extinct mammoths that once roamed the planet.

Jul 28, 2021 · Elephants - the largest land animals alive today - are the only remaining species of the family Elephantidae, which belongs to an ancient order of Proboscidea. Proboscideans were a diverse and widespread group of herbivores that first …

Mar 7, 2025 · Elephantidae is a family of large, herbivorous mammals, belonging to the mammal order of Proboscidea, collectively called elephants and mammoths first described by John Edward Gray in 1821.

A new study reconfigures the elephant family tree, placing the giant extinct elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) closer to the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), than to the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), once thought to be its closest living relative.

Dec 27, 2010 · One longstanding question is just how many elephant species there are, and a genetic study incorporating DNA from woolly mammoths reveals one additional branch in the family tree.

Jun 15, 2017 · Matthias Meyer and colleagues have now obtained DNA sequences from fossils of four straight-tusked elephants ranging from around 120,000 to 240,000 years in age.