Elephant Evolution: Uncovering the Genetic Relationships
Which living subspecies of elephant is the closest relative to mammoths?
a. African elephant
b. Asian elephant
c. Both a and b
d. None of the above
Which living subspecies of elephant is the closest relative to the mastodon?
a. African elephant
b. Asian elephant
c. Both a and b
d. None of the above
Answer:
a. The Asian elephant evolution is the closest living relative to the woolly mammoths, with a 98-99% genetic similarity.
b. Mastodons belong to a different family within the Proboscidea and are less closely related to modern elephants than mammoths.
Woolly mammoths share a close genetic relationship with the Asian elephant, with genetic studies revealing that they are around 98-99% identical. The ancestors of woolly mammoths and Asian elephants split apart from a common ancestor about 6 million years ago, with the mammoths evolving in the cold, arctic regions while the Asian elephants evolved in the warmer Asian regions.
On the other hand, mastodons are not as closely related to either mammoth or today's elephants but belong to a different family within Proboscidea. The American mastodon is the last species of its kind and it diverged from the lineage of mammoths and elephants around 24 - 28 million years ago. Hence, mastodons are less closely related to modern elephants, whether African or Asian, than mammoths are.