As a kid, Advait Jukar loved the extinct monsters of deep time, like dinosaurs and mammoths, which is why he feels so lucky now, getting to study these fossil giants every day as a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Advait specializes in the study of fossil elephants and their extinct relatives, like mastodons, mammoths, and gomphotheres. The earliest elephant relatives originated in Africa about 60 million years ago and dispersed to every continent on earth, except Antarctica and Australia. There are about 165 known elephant species from the fossil record, and scientists estimate that there would have been many more that we haven't found yet, over the whole history of this special group, called a clade. In Earth’s more recent history, between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago, there were 16 species of elephants and their relatives living at the same time around the world, including at least 7 in the United States. Today, there are only three species of elephants that remain: the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Populations of all three species are declining, with Asian elephants at a much higher risk of extinction. Understanding extinct elephants can reveal what environments looked like in the past and how communities of plants and animals were connected. To study this group, Advait uses the Smithsonian’s collection of fossil elephant skulls and teeth to try to figure out how many different kinds of elephants there were in Earth’s history, what food they may have eaten, and how they were related to each other. Taking measurements of skulls and teeth help Advait make comparisons to other fossils and find patterns to reveal new information. Watch the brief video above to learn how he uses collections to study fossil elephants. This video is part of the Smithsonian Science How series, which includes the "Forgotten Elephants of Deep Time" webcast video with Advait. Watch it here: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/paleontology/forgotten-elephants-deep-time
