Javan elephant
| Javan elephant | |
|---|---|
| |
| Partial fossil tooth of an Asian elephant collected in Cipeundeuy, West Bandung Regency, West Java, possibly of a Javan elephant | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Proboscidea |
| Family: | Elephantidae |
| Genus: | Elephas |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | E. m. sondaicus
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| Trinomial name | |
| Elephas maximus sondaicus Deraniyagala, 1953[1]
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The Javan elephant (Elephas maximus sondaicus) was proposed by Paules Edward Pieris Deraniyagala in 1953, based on an illustration of a carving on the Buddhist monument of Borobudur in Java. He thought that the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) had indeed existed on the island and had gone extinct.[2] It may be considered synonymous with the Sumatran elephant (E. maximus sumatranus).[1]
Fossils of the Asian elephant have been found in Pleistocene deposits on Java. The question of when elephants became extinct in Java is unsettled. Chinese chronicles contemporary with the period of Hindu influence in Java recorded that Javan kings rode on elephants, and that Java exported ivory to China. As elephants were, at least occasionally, transported by ship, the elephants in Java during the period of Hindus may have been imported from India.[3]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Shoshani, J. (2005). "Subspecies Elephas maximus indicus". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- ^ Deraniyagala, P.E.P. (1955). Some Extinct Elephants, Their Relatives and the Two Living Species. Colombo: Ceylon Natural History Museum.
- ^ Dammerman, K. W. (1932). "On Prehistoric Mammals from the Sampoeng Cave, Central Java". Treubia. 14 (4): 480–481.