Dwarf Elephants - The Sri Lankan Elephant - Elephas Maximus - is the Largest Subspecies of Asian Elephant, While Rumors of "Dwarf or Pygmy Elephants" Persist
(youtu.be)https://youtu.be/tSQ6JaWyM2Q?si=PTMFUr4lsZps3_wP@indyreno2933 says,
in case everyone should know, recent studies render Elephas maximus polyphyletic, asiatic elephants are defined by the genus Elephas as a whole and the genus existed solely in Asia, which means the genus never had any species native to Africa.
Elephas maximus is polyphyletic because the extant asiatic elephants are now six separate species: the Indian Elephant (Elephas indicus), the Sri Lanka Elephant (Elephas maximus).The Bangladeshi Elephant (Elephas bangladeshiensis), the Indochinese Elephant (Elephas vietnamensis), the Sumatran Elephant (Elephas sumatrensis), and the Bornean Elephant (Elephas borneensis).
These six species are not closely related to each other and are considered closer to many other extinct species, the bornean elephant is more closely related to the extinct beyer's elephant (Elephas beyeri) and sulawesi dwarf elephant (Elephas celebensis).
The clade containing the bornean elephant (Elephas borneensis), the tbeyer's elephant (Elephas beyeri), and †sulawesi dwarf elephant (Elephas celebensis) is the sister group to the clade containing the †javan elephant (Elephas sondaicus), †blora elephant (Elephas hysudrindicus), and †ngandong dwarf elephant (Elephas indonesicus), the sumatran elephant (Elephas sumatrensis) is basal to both clades and more derived than the indochinese elephant (Elephas vietnamensis),
thainan elephant (Elephas hainanus), and tformosan elephant (Elephas taivanus) is most closely related to the clade containing all of the eight species of asiatic elephant in Southeast Asia.
And the bangladeshi elephant (Elephas bangladeshiensis) is basal to both clades, the indian elephant (Elephas indicus) and sri lanka elephant (Elephas maximus) are both more closely related to both the tfalconer's elephant (Elephas hysudricus) and the flat-headed elephant (Elephas platycephalus), the tpersian elephant (Elephas persicus) appears as more derived than other asiatic elephants in western asia.
But is basal to other asiatic elephants, the tsyrian elephant (Elephas asurus) has evolved before both the persian elephant and all of the asiatic elephants native further east, the clade containing the tturkish elephant (Elephas turcicus) and tcaucasian elephant (Elephas caucasicus) is the sister to the clade containing all other asiatic elephants.
Which leaves the tjordan elephant (Elephas jordanensis) as the most basal of the
twenty-two species of asiatic elephant and the tarabian elephant (Elephas arabicus) as the second most basal.
