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The existence of elephants in ancient China is attested both by archaeological evidence and by depictions in Chinese artwork. Long thought to belong to an extinct subspecies of Asian elephants, named ''Elephas maximus rubridens'', they lived in Central and Southern China before the 14th century BC. They once occurred as far north as Anyang, Henan in northern China. In December 2012, a study by a team of scientists from China reported that the elephant living in China in ancient times (Shang and Zhou dynasties) could not have been a subspecies of the Asian elephant, as previously thought, but probably belonged to the ''Palaeoloxodon'' genus. ''P. namadicus'' were distributed among Asia, but it is unclear if the mysterious elephants of northern China were remnants of ''P. namadicus'' or a unique species of their own. This conclusion was reached after studying remains of Chinese elephant molars and tusks from the Holocene epoch, as well as examining ritual bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which all depicted elephants with two 'fingers' on the tip of their trunk (whereas the Indian elephant only has one 'finger'). Fossil elephant experts Victoria Herridge and Adrian Lister disagree with the assignment, stating that the claimed diagnostic dental features are actually contrast artifacts, created due to the low resolution of the figures in the scientific paper, and are not evident in better quality photographs. Elephants still survived in the southwestern provinces of China after the extinction of the Chinese elephant, but they are of a different subspecies, the Indian elephant, ''Elephas maximus indicus''. ==See also== * Rhinoceroses in ancient China * Dogs in ancient China * Wildlife of China 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elephants in ancient China」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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