Comments on: Flipper? Is that you?

Flipper? Is that you?

The Light Fantastic — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:52:31 -0800

The aquatic ancestry of elephants Scientists believe they have discovered why elephants have trunks - they used them as underwater snorkels. New research suggests that the animals evolved from mammals like the sea cow.

Elephants swimming in the Indian ocean. A baby elephant swimming with tourists. Rajan, the retired logging elephant is featured in Scott Bloom's book, Elephant! You can swim with Rajan at Havelock resort.

By: ericb

ericb — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:59:50 -0800

Ashes & Snow -- swimming elephant [previously - 1, 2].

By: ericb

ericb — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:03:52 -0800

Ah, memories of the (in)famous Elephant threads.

By: (bb|[^b]{2})

(bb|[^b]{2}) — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:33:45 -0800

Save Rajan!

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:11:16 -0800

Sometimes I think I hear them out there at the beach at night. Just waiting, watching, preparing for the moment when they're ordered to attack.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:18:21 -0800

This, this is why I love science.

By: bettafish

bettafish — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:26:01 -0800

Oh no! Is that website up to date? Is Rajan still in danger? I found April 2008 photos of him swimming with tourists, but they didn't come with commentary.

By: stargell

stargell — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:37:22 -0800

Ontogeny recapitulates philogeny! and of course, the philosophical corrollary: Ontology recapitulates philology!

By: pwb503

pwb503 — Sat, 31 May 2008 16:54:01 -0800

I don't buy it at all. Sea cows are most probably related to elephants but they got the ancestry reversed. Trunks serve just as much as a purpose on land (grabbing food, etc) as they would in water (to breathe). Why would these superior aquatic "sea cows" with their trunks leave the water and let the inferior trunkless sea cows keep it? The problem with trunks is that they don't leave fossils. I predict that one day we'll find a fossil though of a dinosaur with a trunk and have to rethink all those supposedly trunkless semi-aquatic long-necked large dinosaurs eating leaves off of trees while they stand in the middle of a lake. If you look at a skeleton of an elephant you'd have no idea it had a trunk, I bet the same is true for this guy.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:05:53 -0800

If you look at a skeleton of an elephant you'd have no idea it had a trunk

Uh, I'm no bonesologist, but I think that that big huge bone completely blocking the front of its mouth might at least be some teeny tinesy kind of clue.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:14:03 -0800

This will be disproved within a few years.

By: eustatic

eustatic — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:15:27 -0800

re: "no idea it had a trunk" musculature and tendon do leave their marks upon bone. People who study know.

By: eustatic

eustatic — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:20:56 -0800

exactly what will be disproved? That elephant fetuses have trunks? I doubt it. the connection to sea cows? there may be other lines of evidence you'll want to consider, although these are not described in the article.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:39:59 -0800

I predict that one day we'll find a fossil though of a dinosaur with a trunk and have to rethink all those supposedly trunkless semi-aquatic long-necked large dinosaurs eating leaves off of trees while they stand in the middle of a lake. That's been suggested, because of the placement of the nares on the top of the skull. (It's not believed anymore that sauropods were semi-aquatic, btw. At least last I heard.)

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:55:28 -0800

The pressure difference between water and surface makes it very laborious to expand the lungs. Even just 2 or 3 feet underwater breathing through a snorkel is extremely difficult (and not because there is so much air in the snorkel). Presumably if the trunk was used for this purpose elephants would also have very strong lungs or some other adaptation that could be checked for.

By: oddman

oddman — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:26:51 -0800

Why would it be extremely difficult to breath through a snorkel only three feet underwater, but still be fairly easy to breath through a regulator 30 feet underwater?

By: TheJoven

TheJoven — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:32:13 -0800

That elephant skull freaks me right out.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:32:21 -0800

oddman writes "Why would it be extremely difficult to breath through a snorkel only three feet underwater, but still be fairly easy to breath through a regulator 30 feet underwater?" I'm guessing the regulator can deliver the gas at pressure high enough to compensate for the depth.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:11:37 -0800

Why would it be extremely difficult to breath through a snorkel only three feet underwater, but still be fairly easy to breath through a regulator 30 feet underwater? You'd need big, huge, powerful lungs. Elephantine lungs, even.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:15:13 -0800

And besides, they still do use their trunks as snorkels.

By: dobbs

dobbs — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:01:47 -0800

This will be disproved within a few years. I agree. By Kirk Cameron.

By: Brainy

Brainy — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:21:33 -0800

I remember reading a long time ago that elephant skulls were the source of cyclops lore, that the trunk hole was thought to be an eye socket.

By: PhatLobley

PhatLobley — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:48:55 -0800

Brainy: I remember reading a long time ago that elephant skulls were the source of cyclops lore, that the trunk hole was thought to be an eye socket. Oh man. I read that too, growing up, but had completely forgotten it until this very moment. I'm pretty sure it was in a Zoobook about elephants. Regaining this memory has made me bizarrely happy. Thanks, Brainy.

By: bettafish

bettafish — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:53:55 -0800

Hey, now I remember that Zoobook as well! Thanks, PhatLobley.

By: winna

winna — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:16:19 -0800

I loved the picture in the elephant Zoobook of all the different elephants through the ages. I loved those things!

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:22:43 -0800

Unexplained sightings of the Loch Ness monster could have been elephants enjoying a swim, a scientist has said.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:36:15 -0800

New research suggests that the animals evolved from mammals like the sea cow Your new research was published in 1999. Wikipedia doesn't disagree, mind, but the ink has definitely dried on that story.

By: Enron Hubbard

Enron Hubbard — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:44:13 -0800

Currently, there is a TV commercial that depicts a surreal underwater circus. I am always struck by how delicately graceful the swimming elephant seems. If mammals could evolve from land to sea, why is it improbable that some went the other way?