Loxodonta atlantica

{{Short description|Extinct species of mammal}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

{{Speciesbox

| fossil_range = Late Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene

| image = Loxodonta atlantica - Osborn 1942.png

| image_caption =

| genus = Loxodonta

| species = atlantica

| authority = Pomel, 1879

| extinct = yes

}}

Loxodonta atlantica is an extinct African species of elephant in the genus Loxodonta (which includes living African elephants). It was larger than modern African elephants, with more progressive dentition.{{cite book |first=R. Norman |last=Owen-Smith |title=Megaherbivores: the influence of very large body size on ecology |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1988 |isbn=0-521-36020-X }} It includes Pleistocene fossils from Ternifine, Algeria,{{cite journal |first=D. |last=Geraads |year=1987 |title=Dating the Northern African cercopithecid fossil record |journal=Human Evolution |volume=2 |pages=19–27 |doi=10.1007/BF02436528 |s2cid=84223113 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/13360/files/PAL_E95.pdf }} Middle Pleistocene fossils from Elandsfontein, South Africa and Late Pliocene fossils from the Omo River, Ethiopia.{{cite book |first1=Jane |last1=Carruthers |first2=André |last2=Boshoff |first3=Rob |last3=Slotow |first4=Harry C. |last4=Biggs |first5=Graham |last5=Avery |first6=Wayne |last6=Matthews |display-authors=1 |chapter=The Elephant in South Africa: History and Distribution |title=Elephant management: A Scientific Assessment for South Africa |editor-first=R. J. |editor-last=Scholes |editor2-first=K. G. |editor2-last=Mennell |pages=23–83 |publisher=Wits University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-86814-479-2 |doi=10.18772/22008034792|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426023455/http://www.elephantassessment.co.za/files/03_ch1_Elephant%20Management.pdf |archive-date=26 April 2012 |chapter-url=http://www.elephantassessment.co.za/files/03_ch1_Elephant%20Management.pdf }} It is suggested to have an extinction date of around 400,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene.{{Cite journal |last1=Stewart |first1=Mathew |last2=Louys |first2=Julien |last3=Price |first3=Gilbert J. |last4=Drake |first4=Nick A. |last5=Groucutt |first5=Huw S. |last6=Petraglia |first6=Michael D. |date=May 2019 |title=Middle and Late Pleistocene mammal fossils of Arabia and surrounding regions: Implications for biogeography and hominin dispersals |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c56e5ff6-d4d2-44f7-a96a-8f4f8a7ae1c9/files/me71e953cd3bd551906c0a5a752c5cf79 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=515 |pages=12–29 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2017.11.052|bibcode=2019QuInt.515...12S }} L. atlantica has been suggested to have probably derived from L. adaurora;{{cite book |last1=Coppens |first1=Y. |first2=V. J. |last2=Maglio |first3=C. T. |last3=Madden |first4=M. |last4=Beden |year=1978 |chapter=Proboscidea |editor-first=V. J. |editor-last=Maglio |editor2-first=H. B. S. |editor2-last=Cooke |title=Evolution of African mammals |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge MA |pages=336–367 |isbn=0-674-27075-4 }} or L. exoptata. It is likely ancestral to the living African bush elephant, L. africana,{{cite journal |first=Nancy E. |last=Todd |year=2010 |title=New Phylogenetic Analysis of the Family Elephantidae Based on Cranial-Dental Morphology |journal=The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology |volume=293 |issue=1 |pages=74–90 |doi=10.1002/ar.21010 |pmid=19937636 |doi-access=free }} with which it coexisted during the Middle Pleistocene prior to its extinction. The species is divided into two subspecies: L. atlantica atlantica (northern Africa) and L. atlantica zulu (southern Africa). The type for Loxodonta atlantica is housed in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, but is listed without a specimen number.