Loxodonta adaurora

Loxodonta adaurora is an extinct species of elephant in the genus Loxodonta, that of the African elephants. Its fossils have been found only in Africa, where the species developed in the Pliocene. It was long presumed to be the genetic antecedent of the two modern African elephant species, but a 2009 analysis suggested that the African bush elephant evolved from Loxodonta atlantica instead. The same study concluded that Loxodonta adaurora was morphologically indistinguishable from Mammuthus subplanifrons and that the two were one species, probably within the mammoth lineage. Other authors continue to treat it as a valid species of Loxodonta, and some consider it an early form of Loxodonta exoptata.