News Life

Genes separate Africa’s elephant herds

Forest and savanna species prove distinct in genetic analysis

By Tina Hesman Saey

- More than 2 years ago

African elephants have new distant cousins — other African elephants.

Africa’s forest and savanna elephants are two distinct species, a new genetic study shows. Forest elephants are smaller than savanna elephants and have rounder, smaller ears and straighter, thinner tusks. [forest/savanna]: Nicholas Georgiadis; A. Schaefer

A genetic analysis of elephants and their extinct relatives, woolly mammoths and mastodons, shows that forest-dwelling African elephants are a separate species from Africa’s savanna elephants.