Elephant 'had aquatic ancestor'

An ancient ancestor of the elephant from 37 million years ago lived in water and had a similar lifestyle to a hippo, a fossil study has suggested.

The animal was said to be similar to a tapir, a hoofed mammal which looks like a cross between a horse and a rhino. Experts from Oxford University and Stony Brook University, New York, analyzed chemical signatures preserved in fossil teeth. These indicated that the animal grazed on plants in rivers or swamps.

The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could shed light on the lifestyle and behavior of modern elephants. Dr Erik Seiffert, co-author of the study has said: "It has often been assumed that elephants have evolved from fully terrestrial ancestors and have always had this kind of a lifestyle.”Now we can really start to think about how their lifestyle and behavior might have been shaped by a very different kind of existence in the distant past.

"It could help us to understand more about the origins of the anatomy and ecology of living elephants."