A placental clade including proboscideans and several other living groups with deep African evolutionary associations.
The placental lineage containing living manatees and dugongs. fossils with substantial weight-bearing limbs document earlier stages of its aquatic transition.
An Eocene Jamaican sirenian retaining four substantial limbs and a strong sacroiliac connection alongside aquatic specializations. It informs the terrestrial-to-aquatic transition without being demonstrated to be a direct ancestor. [ref]
The earliest known fully quadrupedal sirenian by Daryl P. Domning. Nature 413, pp. 625–627; Pezosiren locomotor and aquatic character mosaic
Proboscidea is the mammalian lineage containing living elephants and their extinct relatives. Its fossil diversity includes many combinations of tusk, tooth and skull form. The modern elephant body plan represents one surviving part of that history.
The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, is a living member of Proboscidea. Its trunk combines sensing, manipulation and breathing in one flexible structure, illustrating how one anatomical organ can support several coordinated functions.
An extinct proboscidean lineage with extensive fossil and genomic evidence. Ancient genomes show that morphological groupings can conceal distinct and admixed ancestry histories. [ref]
Million-year-old DNA sheds light on the genomic history of mammoths by Tom van der Valk and others. Nature 591, pp. 265–269; Early Pleistocene genomes and hybrid ancestry of Columbian mammoths
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