Did You Know that Elephants Took 24 Million Generations to Get Big?
Monday, 13.02.2012
Did you know that elephants were not always the giants you see in the pictures? Breaking news from scientists has shown that elephants were actually just the size of a mouse when they first walked the planet and it has taken 24 million years of evolution to see the big mammals that roam around today. Elephants are always said to be scared of mice so perhaps that’s the reason- they are worried about being so small again! Can you imagine this animal that crushes the jungle trees in a stampede fitting into the palm of your hand?! This interesting fact has come to light due to the research of scientists writing the National Academy of Sciences. These scientists looked at lots of different mammals such as the elephant as well as primates and whales to see the different size changes.
All this research can be tracked back to the dinosaurs 70 million years, as the change in sizes is such a long process it needs to be counted in generations rather than years. What doesn’t take as long is the reverse effect- decreasing in size. For a species to get smaller it takes just 100,000 generations- ‘just’ 100,000 generations still seems pretty long but not in comparison to 24 million years. This decrease happens 10 times faster because body size shrinking can promote survival. For example, dwarfism often happens on small islands with limited food supplies and other life essential resources. The evolutionary dwarfism means animals can reproduce faster but need less food so they can survive and flourish. What’s also interesting is that when the scientists study the whales change in size this occurred twice as fast as the land mammals. The bigger expanse of water obviously allows for an animal to be bigger faster- although let’s hope those Great white sharks and crocodiles don’t go getting any bigger over the years!
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