Elephas
Noun
Meaning
type genus of the family Elephantidae
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Hypernyms
Phrases with the word
Examples
Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus first described the genus Elephas and an elephant from Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) under the binomial Elephas maximus in 1758.
Loxodonta atlantica became the most common species in northern and southern Africa but was replaced by Elephas iolensis later in the Pleistocene.
Only when Elephas disappeared from Africa did Loxodonta become dominant once again, this time in the form of the modern species.
There has been some debate over the relationship of Mammuthus to Loxodonta or Elephas.