African Elephants

The closest living relatives to the elephant are the... (select three)

Which word defines the order of the African elephant and denotes a trunk?

Probasco

Proboscidea

Hyrax

Moeritheres

An elephant's tusks stop growing...

After childhood

When the animal reaches maturity

When the animal reaches old age

Never

Elephants are born with tusks, and...

These tusks continue to grow and become the permanent tusks

These tusks are extremely fragile and break easily

These tusks are just "milk teeth," and fall out after a year

Elephants are not born with tusks

An elephant's trunk contains a combination of bones and muscle that contribute to its immense strength and flexibility.

True

False

An elephant's trunk is similar to a human arm in what way?

The incredible similarity of the structure of the trunk to a human arm

The presence of finger-like structures at the tip of the trunk

A wrist-like joint at the end of the trunk that provides added flexibility

The perpendicular, parallel, and helical arrangement of muscle

The most important function of the ears is to...

Listen

Balance the animal

Cool the animal

Scare away predators

Select the African elephant (remember to look for ear shape)

An elephant's ears cool its body temperature by...

Channeling cool air into the inner ear cavity

Containing many tiny wrinkles to increase surface area

Being a lighter shade of gray than the rest of the body, which decreases heat absorption

Containing a large amount of veins and capillaries, allowing blood is cooled by the breeze

Under normal conditions, how wide is an elephant's range of hearing?

10 square kilometers

20 square kilometers

50 square kilometers

100 square kilometers

Elephants are thought to have evolved from palaeomastodons, whose tusks were...

Located on both the top and bottom of mouth, short, and bottom tusks were flat

Located only on top, short and pointy

Located only on bottom, long and flat

Nonexistent

Elephants' trunks are advantageous in the evolutionary sense that...

They allow the animal to reach higher or lower food sources

They are useful for picking things up

They can be used a snorkel when underwater

They can be used to hold or spray water

The greatest evolutionary advantage provided by an elephant's excellent hearing is ease of...

Hunting

Foraging

Nighttime travelling

Mating

An elephant's ear size seems to be directly correlated to...

The food it eats

The climate it lives in

The size of its herd

Its age

In a paragraph, explain how poaching has affected the genetics of certain populations of elephants (focusing on one of the major features of elephants discussed in the lesson).

Based on the changing climate and various other factors you've learned about, briefly predict a possible course of evolution for the African elephant.

African Elephants

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