Related To Mammoths ^new^: Are Elephants

Elephants, conversely, evolved in warmer climates. The African elephant developed large, fan-like ears to radiate heat and wrinkled skin to trap moisture, keeping them cool under the blazing African sun.

Genetic science has illuminated just how intimate this relationship is. In 2008, scientists successfully sequenced the genome of the woolly mammoth. The results were startling: the genetic difference between an African elephant and a woolly mammoth is less than 5%. are elephants related to mammoths

The short answer is In fact, they share a common ancestor that lived roughly six to seven million years ago, making mammoths and modern elephants closer cousins than, say, humans and chimpanzees. To understand this relationship, we have to step into the world of evolutionary biology and follow the trunk-prints left behind by fossils and, more recently, by DNA. Elephants, conversely, evolved in warmer climates

and mammoths are closely related. They are essentially evolutionary "cousins" that share a common ancestor and belong to the same biological family, . In 2008, scientists successfully sequenced the genome of

Today, the elephants are the last remaining survivors of the proboscidean lineage. When we look at an elephant today, we are not looking at a direct descendant of the mammoth, but we are looking at its closest living relative. They are the final two twigs on a once-massive evolutionary branch that has been growing for over 50 million years.

The relationship between these giants is best understood by looking at their shared lineage within the order , which includes all animals with trunks.