How many species are proboscis in the order? Proboscis mammals

Lesson type - combined

Methods: partial search, problematic presentation, reproductive, explanatory and illustrative.

Target: mastering the skills to apply biological knowledge in practice, use information about modern advances in biology; work with biological devices, instruments, reference books; to conduct observations of biological objects;

Tasks:

Educational: the formation of a cognitive culture, mastered in the process of educational activity, and aesthetic culture as the ability to an emotional-value relation to objects of living nature.

Developing: development of cognitive motives aimed at obtaining new knowledge about living nature; cognitive qualities of a person associated with the assimilation of the foundations of scientific knowledge, mastering the methods of studying nature, the formation of intellectual skills;

Educational: orientation in the system of moral norms and values: recognition of the high value of life in all its manifestations, the health of one's own and other people; environmental awareness; education of love for nature;

Personal: understanding the responsibility for the quality of acquired knowledge; understanding the value of an adequate assessment of one's own achievements and capabilities;

Cognitive: the ability to analyze and assess the impact of environmental factors, risk factors on health, the consequences of human activities in ecosystems, the impact of one's own actions on living organisms and ecosystems; focus on continuous development and self-development; the ability to work with various sources of information, transform it from one form to another, compare and analyze information, draw conclusions, prepare messages and presentations.

Regulatory: the ability to organize independently the fulfillment of tasks, evaluate the correctness of the work, reflection on their activities.

Communicative: the formation of communicative competence in communication and cooperation with peers, understanding the features of gender socialization in adolescence, socially useful, educational and research, creative and other types of activity.

Technologies : Health preservation, problem-based, developmental learning, group activities

Activities (content elements, control)

Formation of students' working abilities and abilities for structuring and systematizing the studied subject content: collective work - studying the text and illustrative material compiling the table "Systematic multicellular groups" with the advice of student-experts with subsequent self-examination; pair or group performance of laboratory work with the advice of a teacher, followed by a mutual check; independent work on the studied material.

Planned results

Subject

understand the meaning of biological terms;

describe the structural features and basic life processes of animals of different systematic groups; to compare the structural features of protozoa and multicellular animals;

to recognize organs and systems of organs of animals of different systematic groups; compare and explain the reasons for the similarities and differences;

to establish the relationship between the features of the structure of organs and the functions that they perform;

give examples of animals of different systematic groups;

to distinguish in figures, tables and natural objects the main systematic groups of protozoa and multicellular animals;

characterize the direction of evolution of the animal world; provide evidence of the evolution of the animal world;

Metasubject UUD

Cognitive:

work with different sources of information, analyze and evaluate information, transform it from one form to another;

draw up abstracts, various types of plans (simple, complex, etc.), structure educational material, give definitions of concepts;

conduct observations, set up elementary experiments and explain the results obtained;

compare and classify, independently choosing the criteria for the specified logical operations;

build logical reasoning, including the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships;

create schematic models highlighting the essential characteristics of objects;

determine possible sources of necessary information, search for information, analyze and evaluate its reliability;

Regulatory:

organize and plan your educational activities - to determine the purpose of the work, the sequence of actions, set tasks, predict the results of the work;

independently put forward options for solving the assigned tasks, foresee the final results of the work, choose the means of achieving the goal;

work according to the plan, check your actions against the goal and, if necessary, correct mistakes yourself;

own the basics of self-control and self-assessment for making decisions and making informed choices in educational, cognitive and educational and practical activities;

Communicative:

listen and engage in dialogue, participate in collective discussion of problems;

integrate and build productive interaction with peers and adults;

adequately use speech means for discussion and argumentation of their position, compare different points of view, argue their point of view, defend their position.

Personal UUD

Formation and development of cognitive interest in the study of biology and the history of the development of knowledge about nature

Receptions: analysis, synthesis, inference, translation of information from one type to another, generalization.

Basic concepts

Diversity of mammals, division into orders; general characteristics of detachments, the relationship between lifestyle and external structure. The importance of mammals in nature and human life, the protection of mammals.

During the classes

Knowledge update ( concentration of attention when studying new material)

Choose the answer that is correct in your opinion.

1. Representatives of pinnipeds

Semi-aquatic

Terrestrial

2. Head of pinnipeds

Small

Proportional

3. What happens to the ear holes of pinnipeds when immersed in water?

Go to the head

Are closing

Filled with water

4. What do pinnipeds eat?

Plant food

Fish

Algae

5. Where do pinnipeds breed?

On the land

Under the water

6. How often do pinnipeds breed?

Twice a year

Once a year

Three times a year

7. The smallest size among pinnipeds has

Fur seal

Winter walrus

Ringed seal

8. At what age do pinnipeds become sexually mature?

9. The tail of pinnipeds ...

Short

Missing

10. The limbs of pinnipeds are

Fins and claws

Flippers

Fins and legs

Learning new material(teacher's story with conversation elements)

Proboscis mammals. Representatives of the Proboscis squad and their features.

Who are proboscis mammals? Representatives of these animals appeared millions of years ago. Find out how many species exist now, what distinctive features they have.

Proboscis mammals... When the word "proboscis" usually occurs only a few associations - elephants and mammoths. And this is correct, because the Proboscis order includes only the elephant family. Proboscis mammals appeared in equatorial Africa approximately 45 million years ago. Then their range expanded to Africa, Eurasia, North and South America. Mastodons and mammoths are considered their distant ancestors.

Elephants are now common in Southeast Asia and Africa.... They live in savannas and rainforests. They are social animals and true centenarians. Elephants die at the age of 60-80 years. They live in groups of several females and calves. Males only occasionally join them to find a mate for mating. They can travel hundreds of kilometers for food. Elephants eat up to 500 kilograms of plant food a day and drink up to 300 liters of water. At the same time, animals assimilate no more than 40% of food. The basis of the diet is made up of leaves, grass, fruits and tree bark.

Features of the structure. Their size is impressive. Elephants are huge herbivores with an average height of 2.5 to 4 meters and a length of up to 4.5 meters. Proboscis mammals have gigantic, in comparison with humans, body, large head and large ears. The skin is gray in color, covered with sparse vegetation and fine wrinkles.

Huge ears help to cope with heat by regulating the receipt and release of heat in the body. Additional cooling occurs when the ears are flapped. Thanks to these powerful locators, elephants are excellent at distinguishing sounds at a frequency of 1 kHz.

Their incisor teeth are greatly enlarged and are called tusks. For humans, they are a valuable material, so animals are often killed for ivory. Despite their impressive size, elephants walk quietly and gently because of the fat pad on the feet, which increases the foot area.

Why does an elephant need a trunk? The trunk is an important and irreplaceable organ of elephants. It was formed by the junction of the upper lip and nose. Equipped with muscles and tendons that allow the animal to use it instead of hands. With this powerful and flexible tool, proboscis mammals can drag branches, logs, and pluck fruits from trees. The trunk also works as a sense organ. The nostrils located at the end help to sense smells. Thanks to the sensitivity of the trunk, elephants feel objects in order to recognize them. At the watering hole, water is sucked in with a trunk, then sent to the mouth. The sounds produced by this organ allow the elephants to communicate.

Types of elephants.

Elephants are represented by only three types - African savannah, Indian, Forest. The latter is dwarf in size in comparison with its brothers, and reaches only two and a half meters in height. The body of the animal is covered with a thicker brown hair. It has rounded ears, which is why it is nicknamed round-eared. Together with the savannah elephant, the forest elephant is listed in the Red Book.

The African savannah is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest mammal in the world. The length of his body sometimes reaches seven meters, and the height at the shoulders is four. The average weight of males reaches 7 tons, and for females it is two tons less. They live mainly in reservations and national parks, some are common in the desert regions of Namibia and Mali, which is why they are called desert elephants.

The Indian, or Asian elephant is slightly smaller than the savannah. Its habitual habitat is bamboo thickets, tropical and deciduous forests. It is the only member of the Indian elephant genus and is considered an endangered species. There are several subspecies of it living in Sri Lanka, Sumatra, India, China, Cambodia, on the island of Borneo.

African Elephant

V.V. Latyushin, E. A. Lamekhova. Biology. 7th grade. Workbook for the textbook V.V. Latyushina, V.A. Shapkin “Biology. Animals. 7th grade". - M .: Bustard.

Zakharova N. Yu. Control and verification work in biology: to the textbook of V. V. Latyushin and V. A. Shapkin “Biology. Animals. Grade 7 "/ N. Yu. Zakharova. 2nd ed. - M .: Publishing house "Exam"

Hosting presentations

Infraclass of higher beasts, currently consisting of a single family of elephants. Proboscids are the largest of modern land animals. The height of the body of elephants at the shoulders reaches 4 m, and the weight is 7.5 tons. They are common in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in South and Southeast Asia from Pakistan through India, Nepal and Burma to Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, the Malacca Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra.

The wide legs of the elephants are adapted to walk on almost any ground - from the hard soil of the savannahs to the swampy banks of rivers and lakes. When resting on the foot, its sole expands, increasing the supporting surface. When walking, the legs are springy, which allows the elephants to step completely silently. Each of the five toes of the front feet, as well as three or four toes of the hind feet, are covered with a small hoof. On the chest between the forelegs, as in primates, sirens and bats, there is a pair of nipples of the mammary glands. Despite the massive build, the proboscis are mobile, overcome steep ascents without apparent effort and feel free among the rocks, swim well, leaving the forehead and the tip of the trunk above the water surface. The breeding of elephants is not associated with a specific season. Pregnancy lasts 20 to 22 months. The female gives birth to 1, rarely 2 cubs. The first months of life, the baby elephant feeds on mother's milk, which sucks with its mouth, without using its trunk.

The first proboscis arose in Africa in the Paleogene period in the second half of the Eocene. Their close relatives are marine inhabitants - lilacs (dugongs, manatees, Steller's sea cow), and the most ancient representative connecting these two orders are considered to be meroterias. Deinotherium was the group that early deviated from the common path of development of the proboscis. At the base of the main evolutionary path of development of proboscis are paleomastodons, from them gomphotheria originate, a kind of "intermediate link" leading to real elephants and to the numerous in the past, but extinct group of true mastodons. The relatives of the gomphoteria were also specialized forms adapted to habitat in swamps - platybelodons, and forms close to them.

Throughout the Cenozoic, there were many dozen species of proboscis, only mammoths in the Pliocene and Quaternary period were at least 20 species. Many of them had a completely "elephant" appearance, trunk and protruding tusks. But some, especially the ancestral and deviating forms, were unusual, such as the Platybelodons and the closely related Gnatobelodons and Ambelodons.

The fossil ancestors of elephants inhabited almost every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Some of them were no larger than a horse, others, like the southern elephant, were real giants and reached a height of 5 m. The proboscis fossils lived mainly in forests, savannas and along river valleys. Only the mammoth, with a general cooling of the climate, managed to adapt to the harsh conditions of the tundra.

Fossil ancestors of modern elephants since the Eocene inhabited almost all continents of the world (with the exception of Australia and Antarctica). These were animals of various sizes, often not exceeding the size of a horse, or such giants as the Pliocene southern elephant 5 m high. Elephants lived mainly in forests, savannas and along river valleys. One species, the well-known mammoth, has adapted even to the harsh conditions of the tundra with the general cooling of the climate. To date, however, only two species have survived, belonging to the same family, but representing two independent genera.

The device of the elephant's leg is remarkable: on the sole, under the skin, there is a special jelly-like springy mass, which allows you to step completely silently. In addition, when the elephant rests on its leg, the sole expands, as it were, swells, the supporting surface increases. But as soon as he unloads his leg, it takes on its original shape. Therefore, the elephant easily overcomes swampy swamps and does not get stuck, even plunging into the bog up to its belly.

The dental system of elephants is also peculiar. They have no fangs. What is commonly called canines are actually incisors, of which elephants have only a pair in the upper jaw. In addition, each jaw has two pairs of premolar and one pair of molars with a wide chewing surface and a low crown. A total of 26 teeth.

The skin of elephants is thick, almost devoid of hair, and is cut by a frequent network of wrinkles. Only the mammoth's body was covered with long and rather thick red hair.

African elephant(Loxodonta africana) is the largest modern land animal. The mass of old males reaches 7.5 tons, and the height at the shoulders is A m (on average, males weigh 5 tons, females - 3 tons). However, despite its massive build, the elephant is strikingly mobile, easy to move, and fast without haste. It swims beautifully, and only the forehead and the tip of the trunk remain above the surface of the water, overcomes a steep rise without visible effort, feels free among the rocks. A striking sight is a herd of elephants in the forest.

Absolutely silently, the animals literally cut through the dense thickets. So it seems that they are immaterial: no cod, no rustle, no movement of branches and foliage. With an even, outwardly unhurried step, the elephant covers huge distances in search of food or avoiding danger, walking tens of kilometers per night. No wonder it is considered useless to chase a disturbed herd of elephants.

The African elephant inhabits a vast area south of the Sahara. In ancient times, it was found in North Africa, but now it has completely disappeared from there. Despite the vast area of ​​distribution, it is not easy to meet elephants: they are now found in large numbers only in national parks and reserves. So, in Uganda in the 1920s, elephants lived on 70% of the entire territory, and now they inhabit no more than 17% of the country's area. There are no elephants outside of protected areas in many countries.

Elephants rarely live alone. But the multi-hundred herds, about which the travelers of the last century wrote, are now almost nonexistent. The usual composition of an elephant herd is 9-12 old, young and very small animals. As a rule, there is a leader in the herd, most often an old elephant. However, sometimes males are the leader, especially during migrations. The herd of elephants is a very friendly community. Animals get to know each other well, together they protect the young; there are cases when elephants provided assistance to wounded brothers, taking them away from a dangerous place. Dr & nzh between elephants is rare, but only animals suffering from some kind of pain, for example with a broken tusk, become quarrelsome and irritable. Usually such elephants move away from the herd, but it is not known whether they themselves prefer solitude or are expelled by healthy companions. An elephant with a broken tusk is also dangerous for humans. No wonder the first commandment that visitors to national parks need to know is: “Don't leave your car! Don't cross the road for the herd of elephants! Do not drive up to single elephants, especially with a broken tusk! " And this is no accident: the elephant is the only animal that can easily go on the attack and turn the car over. At one time, ivory hunters often died under the feet of wounded giants. In addition to humans, the elephant has almost no enemies. The rhinoceros, the second giant of Africa, is in a hurry to make way for the elephant, and if it does come to a collision, it is always defeated.

Of the senses, the elephant has the most developed sense of smell and hearing. An alert elephant is an unforgettable sight: the huge sails of the ears are widely deployed, the trunk is raised up and moves from side to side, trying to catch the breath of the wind, in the whole figure there is both tension and threat. The attacking elephant presses its ears, hides its trunk behind the tusks, which the animal brings forward with a sharp movement. The elephant's voice is a high-pitched, shrill sound that simultaneously resembles a hoarse horn and the grinding of a car's brakes.

Breeding in elephants is not associated with a specific season. Usually, before mating, the male and female are removed from the herd for a while; mating is preceded by a complex ritual, when animals caress each other with their trunk. Pregnancy lasts 22 months. A newborn elephant calf weighs about 100 kg with a height of about 1 le, its trunk is short, there are no tusks. Until the age of five, he needs the constant supervision of an elephant and cannot live on his own. An elephant reaches sexual maturity by the age of 12-20, and old age and death by the age of 60-70. Usually, females give birth to cubs once every 4 years.

The fate of elephants in Africa is one of the most interesting pages in the history of the fauna of this continent. The African elephant is the largest, but also one of the most unlucky animals. His tusks, the so-called ivory, have long been valued almost worth their weight in gold. Until Europeans came to Africa with firearms, elephants were hunted relatively little - hunting was very difficult and dangerous. But the stream of lovers of easy money, who rushed to Africa at the end of the last century, has dramatically changed the situation. Elephants were killed from the express choke, the tusks were broken out and huge corpses were thrown into the prey of hyenas and vultures. And tens, hundreds of thousands of these corpses rotted among the forests and savannas of Africa. But the profits of enterprising adventurers were great. In the African elephant, both males and females are armed with tusks. But females have small tusks. But the tusks of old males sometimes reached a length of 3-3.5 m with a mass of about 100 kg each (a record pair of tusks had a length of 4.1 m and a weight of 225 kg). True, on average, each tusk produced only about 6-7 kg of ivory, since the hunters killed all elephants in a row - males and females, young and old. Nevertheless, a huge amount of this tragic product passed through the ports of Europe. By 1880, when the ivory trade was at its height, between 60,000 and 70,000 elephants were slaughtered each year. But already in 1913, the tusks of 10,000 elephants were brought, in 1920 - 1928. - 6000 annually. Elephants were becoming rare. First of all, they were killed in the savannahs; best preserved in the inaccessible swamps along the valleys of the Upper Nile and Congo, where the road was closed to man by nature.

About 50 years ago, uncontrolled hunting for elephants was officially ended, a network of national parks was created, and the African elephant was preserved. There is not much space left for him on earth - he can feel calm only in national parks.

The protected regime soon had a beneficial effect on the elephants. The number began to grow, and now there are about 250,000 elephants in Africa (apparently even more than 100 years ago). Parallel to the growth of the livestock, the concentration of animals increased in limited areas of the territory. For example, in Kruger National Park in 1898 there were only 10 elephants, in 1931 - 135, in 1958 - 995, and by 1964 - 2374 elephants! It would seem that everything is fine. But in reality, such overpopulation posed a serious new threat to elephants, and the “elephant problem” in national parks became the number one problem. The fact is that an adult elephant eats up to 100 kg of grass, fresh shoots of shrubs or tree branches per day. It is estimated that vegetation from an area of ​​about 5 km2 is needed to feed one elephant during the year. When feeding, elephants often knock down trees to get to the upper branches, often rip off bark from the trunks. However, in the past, herds of elephants made migrations, the scope of which reached many hundreds of kilometers, and the vegetation damaged by the elephants had time to recover. Now, when the mobility of elephants is sharply limited, they are forced to feed - on an elephant scale - "on a patch." So, in Tsavo, for each elephant there is only about 1 km2. And in Queen Elizabeth National Park, there are an average of 7 elephants, 40 hippos, 10 buffaloes and 8 waterbirds per 1 square mile (2.59 km2). With such a load, animals begin to starve, and in some places they have to resort to artificial feeding (as an additional ration, elephants get oranges!). Many national parks are fenced with wire fenced with a weak current, otherwise the elephants could destroy the surrounding plantations.

Now, at the entrance to some national parks (for example, Murchison Falls), the first thing that strikes you is the kind of trees: broken branches, peeled bark, some of the trees are simply felled or withered at the root. And where forest vegetation is degrading, dense thickets of thorny bushes or grass steppes develop rapidly, completely unsuitable for forest animals, and even for the elephants themselves.

All this dictates the need to reduce the number of elephants. Therefore, in recent years, the planned shooting of elephants in national parks has also begun. In parks in East Africa (mainly Ambosseli, Tsavo and Murchison Falls), 5,000 elephants were shot in 1966, and 8,000 in 1967. This is probably just the beginning, since the problem has not yet been resolved.

The number of elephants is being reduced, also by destroying artificial reservoirs, at one time specially arranged in the arid regions of some national parks. It is assumed that the elephants, having lost their watering hole, will go outside the park, where they will be hunted under paid licenses. But it should be noted that elephants are well aware of the boundaries of the protected area and, at the slightest alarm, rush for the saving line. Having stepped over it, they stop staring at the unlucky pursuer with curiosity.

However, the problem of water for elephants is critical. They need daily watering, and in dry times they even dig with tusks in the beds of dried rivers where water is collected.

These watering holes are used not only by elephants, but also by many other animals, including buffaloes and rhinos.

The elephant is economically a very valuable animal. In addition to tusks, meat, skin, bones and even a brush of coarse hair at the end of the tail are disposed of. The local population uses meat in fresh and dried form. Bone meal is made from bones. They make peculiar tables from the ears, and from the legs they make trash baskets or stools. Such "exotic" goods are in constant demand among tourists. From their coarse, wire-like tail hair, Africans weave beautiful bracelets that, according to local beliefs, bring good luck to the wearer.

Elephants are of no less economic importance as a lure for tourists from other countries. Without elephants, the African savannah would have lost half of its charm. Indeed, there is something inexplicably attractive about elephants. Are the animals marching unhurriedly across the plain, cutting through the thick tall grass like ships; do they feed at the edge of the forest, among the bushes; do they drink by the river, lined up in a straight line; Whether they are resting motionless in the shade of trees - in all their appearance, in their manner, one can feel a deep calmness, dignity, hidden power. And you involuntarily imbued with respect and sympathy for these giants, witnesses of bygone eras, you feel a sincere admiration for them.

At the very beginning of the XX century. in the Belgian Congo, work began on the domestication of the African elephant. The work continued for several decades and was crowned with some success, but did not receive any practical application, although Hannibal still made his trip to Rome on African elephants, which were then found in northern Africa and domesticated here.

Indian elephant(Elephas maximus) is smaller than African.

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The mass of even very tall old males does not exceed 5 tons, and the height at the shoulders is 2.5-3 m.In contrast to the African elephant, the Indian elephant has large tusks only in males, and they are 2-3 times less than in the African, rarely reaching a length of 1.5 m and a weight of 20-25 kg. Among Indian elephants, there are quite often males without tusks, which in India are called mahna. Such males are especially common in the northeastern part of the country. The ears of the Indian elephant are much smaller; they are somewhat extended downward and strongly pointed. The Indian elephant also differs from the African one in the details of the structure of the trunk, molars, the number of vertebrae, and some other anatomical features.

Wild elephants are found in Northeast, East and South India, East Pakistan, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Nepal, Malacca, Sumatra and Ceylon. Back in the XVI-XVII centuries. the elephant was much more widespread: it was found in Central India, Gujarat and on the island of Kalimantan, where now there are no wild elephants. The area and number of the wild elephant began to decline especially sharply in recent decades due to the expansion of agricultural land and plantations of eucalyptus trees, which are used as the main raw material for the paper and viscose industry in the countries of Southeast Asia. In addition, elephants began to be exterminated as agricultural pests, despite existing conservation laws. The range of wild Malay elephants has sharply decreased, of which there are about 500 left. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, where there were most elephants in India, there are now about 400 heads, and in total there are no more than 3000-5000 in the country. The island of Ceylon, which was famous for the abundance of wild elephants, is now home to about 2,500 animals. Roughly the same number lives in Burma. There are even fewer elephants in other countries.

The Indian elephant is much more forest-dwelling than the African elephant. However, he prefers light forests with dense undergrowth of shrubs and especially bamboo. Previously, especially in the cool season, elephants went out into the savannahs, but now this has become possible only in reserves, since outside of them the savannah is almost everywhere turned into agricultural land. In summer, elephants climb quite high into the mountains along wooded slopes, and in the Himalayas they are found near the border of eternal snows.

Most often, the wild Indian elephant is kept in family groups of 10-20 animals, but there are singles and herds of up to 100 or more heads. In elephant herds, adult males make up about 30%, females - 50% and young - 20%. Each herd has an old, experienced female, to whom the rest of the animals obey.

The breeding of the Indian elephant can take place in different seasons of the year. During the mating period, males are very excited for about three weeks, a black secret is secreted from the skin gland located between the ear and eye. This condition of males in India is called must. Elephants during the must period should be wary of, they can even attack a person. Pregnancy lasts 607-641 days, i.e. 20-21.5 months; one, rarely two baby elephants will be born, weighing about 90 kg. The Indian elephant reaches sexual maturity at the age of 8-12 and lives 60-70 years.

Unlike the African elephant, the Indian is easy to tame, quickly becomes very docile, is surprisingly easy to train, and can do difficult jobs. In rugged, swampy and forested areas, elephants are used as mounts; on the back of an elephant in a special saddle, or gazebo, 4 people can easily fit, not counting the driver, or mahout, who sits on the elephant's neck. Elephants are capable of carrying heavy weights - up to 350 kg or more. Most often, elephants are used in logging, where they not only carry heavy trunks of sawn trees, but also perform complex work, laying sawn boards in a certain order, load and unload barges, pull logs out of the water, etc.

In captivity, elephants reproduce very poorly, so the replenishment of the herd of tame elephants is carried out by capturing wild, mainly young elephants. The capture and taming of wild elephants is also carried out with the help of domestic ones. Usually a whole herd of wild elephants is herded into a large pen made of stakes.

Until recently, there were tens of thousands of working elephants in India, Burma and other countries of Southeast Asia, but recently their number has begun to decline rapidly - elephants are being replaced by a tractor. In forestry work, elephants are still used in swampy areas, where a tractor cannot pass without roads. Elephants participate in okhtsta and lavish temple ceremonies. A large number of Indian elephants, as easily tame and obedient, are bought by zoos and circuses around the world.

Proboscids (lat. Proboscidea) - a detachment of placental mammals, owe their name to their main distinguishing feature - the trunk. The only representatives of proboscis today are the elephant family (Elephantidae). The extinct families of proboscis include mastodons (Mammutidae).

Proboscids are distinguished not only by their trunk, but also by their unique tusks, as well as the largest size among all mammals on land. These peculiarities are by no means a hindrance, but, on the contrary, are highly specialized devices. Once upon a time, many families of proboscis lived on earth, some of which had four tusks. Today only the elephant family exists in a very limited living space.

At the beginning, the proboscis formations were barely noticeable and served the ancestors of proboscis, living in swamps, as a means to breathe under water. Later, the trunks, with their many muscles, developed into subtle-sensory grasping organs, which allowed the plucking of leaves from trees and grass in the steppes. Tusks during evolution reached 4 meters and had various shapes.

The African and Indian elephant are all that remain today of their many ancestors.

The head of an African elephant in profile looks sloping, in the form of a well-defined angle; the ridge rises from the head to the shoulder blades, then descends and rises again to the thighs.

The Indian elephant has pronounced brow ridges and a convex bump on the top of the head with a cleft in the middle; the back is higher in the middle than in the area of ​​the shoulder blades and hips.

Indian elephant

A powerful, massive animal, with a large broad-forehead head, short neck, powerful body and columnar legs. The Indian elephant is smaller than the African relative. Its mass does not exceed 5 tons, and its height at the shoulders is 2.5-3 m.In contrast to the African elephant, tusks are present only in males, but they are also 2-3 times shorter than the tusks of an African relative. The ears of the Indian elephant are smaller, extended downward and pointed.

Wild Indian elephants are found in India, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Malacca, Sumatra and Sri Lanka. Due to the expansion of plantations and crops, the number of wild elephants is decreasing. Animals are destroyed as agricultural pests, despite the ban. The Indian elephant, like the African one, is listed in the IUCN Red List.

The Indian elephant lives in the forest thickets, it is usually kept in family groups of 10-20 animals, sometimes there are herds of up to 100 or more individuals. Usually the old female becomes the leader of the herd.

Unlike its African counterpart, the Indian elephant is easy to tame, easy to train. In hard-to-reach swampy places, elephants are used as riding animals. On the back of the animal in the gazebo, 4 people can fit, not counting the driver sitting on the elephant's neck. Elephants are capable of carrying up to 350 kg of cargo. Trained elephants not only carry the logs in the logging sites, but also stack them in a specific order, load and unload the barges. Indian elephants are bought by zoos and circuses around the world.

Indian elephants are inferior in size to African savannah elephants, but their size is also impressive - old individuals (males) reach a weight of 5.4 tons with a height of 2.5 - 3.5 meters. Females are smaller than males, weighing an average of 2.7 tons. The smallest is the subspecies from Kalimantan (weight about 2 tons). For comparison, the African savannah elephant weighs from 4 to 7 tons. The body length of the Indian elephant is 5.5-6.4 m, the tail is 1.2-1.5 m. The Indian elephant is more massive than the African one. Legs are thick and relatively short; the structure of the soles of the feet resembles that of the African elephant - under the skin there is a special springy mass. There are five hooves on the front legs, four on the hind legs. The body is covered with thick wrinkled skin; skin color - from dark gray to brown. The thickness of the Indian elephant's skin reaches 2.5 cm, but is very thin on the inside of the ears, around the mouth and anus. The skin is dry and has no sweat glands, so caring for it is an important part of an elephant's life. By taking mud baths, elephants protect themselves from insect bites, sunburn and fluid loss. Dust baths, bathing and scratching on trees also play a role in skin hygiene. Often, depigmented pinkish patches are visible on the body of the Indian elephant, which gives them a mottled appearance. Newborn elephants are covered with brownish hair, which wipes off and thinns with age, but even adult Indian elephants are more covered with coarse wool than African elephants.

Albinos are a rarity among elephants and are, to a certain extent, an object of worship in Siam. As a rule, they are only slightly lighter and have several even lighter spots. The best specimens were pale reddish-brown in color with a pale yellow iris and sparse white hairs on the back.

The broad forehead, depressed in the middle and strongly convex from the sides, has an almost vertical position; its mounds represent the highest point of the body (the shoulders of the African elephant). The most characteristic feature that distinguishes the Indian from the African elephant is the relatively smaller size of the ears. The ears of the Indian elephant never rise above the level of the neck. They are of medium size, irregularly quadrangular in shape, with a somewhat elongated tip and an upper edge curled inward. The tusks (elongated upper incisors) are significantly, 2-3 times smaller than that of the African elephant, up to 1.6 m long, weighing up to 20-25 kg. For a year of growth, the tusk increases by an average of 17 cm. They develop only in males, rarely in females. Among the Indian elephants, there are males without tusks, which in India are called makhna (makhna). Such males are especially common in the northeastern part of the country; the largest number of ivory-free elephants is in Sri Lanka (up to 95%)

Just as people are right-handed and left-handed, different elephants are more likely to use the right or left tusk. This is determined by the degree of wear of the tusk and its more rounded tip.

In addition to the tusks, the elephant has 4 molars, which change several times during life as they wear out. When changing, new teeth grow not under the old ones, but further on the jaw, gradually pushing the worn out teeth forward. In the Indian elephant, molars change 6 times during their life; the latter erupt by about 40 years. When the last teeth are worn down, the elephant loses the ability to eat normally and dies of starvation. As a rule, this happens by the age of 70.

The elephant's trunk is a long process formed by the nose and upper lip fused together. The complex system of muscles and tendons gives it great flexibility and mobility, allowing the elephant to manipulate even small objects, and its volume allows it to collect up to 6 liters of water. The septum (septum) dividing the nasal cavity also consists of numerous muscles. The elephant's trunk is devoid of bones and cartilage; the only cartilage is at its end, dividing the nostrils. Unlike the African elephant, the trunk terminates in a single dorsal finger-like process.

The differences between the Indian elephant and the African are lighter color, medium-sized tusks, found only in males, small ears, a convex humped back without a "saddle", two bulges on the forehead and a single finger-like process at the end of the trunk. The differences in the internal structure also include 19 pairs of ribs instead of 21, as in the African elephant, and the structural features of the molars - the transverse plates of dentin in each tooth in the Indian elephant from 6 to 27, which is more than in the African elephant. The caudal vertebrae are 33, instead of 26. The heart often has a double apex. Females can be distinguished from males by their two mammary glands located on the chest. The elephant's brain is the largest among land animals and reaches a weight of 5 kg.

Brief description of the detachment (and family)

Proboscis - the largest land animals (height at the shoulders 3-4 m; weight 4-5 tons); were numerous and widespread in the Tertiary period. The size of the proboscis is the largest among modern terrestrial mammals. Males are larger than females.
The body is massive, elongated. The neck is short. The head is huge with large fan-shaped ears, small eyes (with a blinking membrane) and a long muscular trunk, at the end of which there are nostrils. Huge incisors of the upper jaw, protruding from the mouth in the form of a pair of tusks, no canines. Tusks grow throughout life. The molars function in shifts; when worn out, it is replaced by the next one. The trunk is formed by an elongated nose and upper lip: it is a muscular formation, hollow inside, divided along its entire length by a longitudinal septum. At the end of the trunk there are only dorsal or dorsal and ventral grasping finger-like processes. The trunk function is diverse. It serves for breathing, smelling, touching, helping with drinking and eating. With its trunk, the elephant picks off grass, tree branches, fruits and sends them into the mouth, sucks water into the trunk and then injects it into the mouth. The limbs are high, columnar, five-fingered, each finger is clad with a hoof. On the front legs there are 5, sometimes 4 hooves, on the hind legs - 3 or 4. On the sole under the skin there is a jelly-like springy pad, which provides a silent step and movement on viscous ground.
The elephant's skin is grayish in color, has a significant thickness, almost naked. Its outer surface is uneven, covered with epidermal tubercles of varying thickness. The epidermis has a cellular inner surface. Hair in adults is sparse, bristle-like. In newborns, the hairline is quite thick. In the temporal region there is a specific skin gland, which produces an abundant secretion of a liquid consistency with an unpleasant odor during estrus.
One pair of nipples - in the chest area, between the front legs. The elephant's skull is huge, but somewhat shortened. The brain is the largest in mass among land mammals.
Indian elephants are common in South Asia, and African elephants are common in Africa.
Elephants inhabited forests and savannahs, sometimes tall grasses. Usually do not go far from the water: Females, calves and young males form herds of up to 30-400 heads. Adult males usually keep alone, at times joining herds. Herd size is dependent on food, water and disturbance. Active during daylight hours; they rest during hot hours. They feed exclusively on plants, including leaves, fruits, bark, roots. Forage migrations take place. Usually they walk in stride and can only run for short distances. Swim well. Hearing is well developed, the sense of smell is excellent, vision is relatively weak. Sound communication is well represented.
Pregnancy from 20 to 22 months. The female brings one, rarely two cubs. The weight of a newborn is about 100 kg. Soon after birth, the cub follows its mother. He sucks milk with his mouth. Lactation lasts about two years. Sexual maturity occurs at about 9-20 years. Life expectancy is usually 50-80 years.
Elephants were the subject of intense hunting for the tusks prized in the market. As a result of direct destruction and indirect impact of human activities, the number has dropped sharply and, as a rule, currently elephants are numerous only in protected areas. Asian elephants have long been used as working animals.
Proboscids, apparently, had common ancestors with sirens and hyraxes. But already from the Paleocene, each of these groups developed independently. In the north of Siberia, in the permafrost, sometimes they find the carcasses of extinct elephants - mammoths that lived in Eurasia during the ice age.
The Indian elephant - Elephas maximus only males have tusks; easily tamed, but usually does not breed in captivity. African elephant - Loxodonta africanus larger; females also have tusks; difficult to tame. Extinct mammoth - Elephas primigenius had a thick coat; lived in glacial regions.

Literature:
1. Course in zoology. B. A. Kuznetsov, A. 3. Chernov, L. N. Katonova. Moscow, 1989
2. Naumov NP, Kartashev NN Zoology of vertebrates. - Part 2. - Reptiles, birds, mammals: A textbook for a biologist. specialist. un-tov. - M .: Higher. school, 1979. - 272 p., ill.