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scientist have discovered fossilized clay of the oldest known elephant congener , dating back 60 million years .
The fossils were found in Morocco . CalledEritherium azzouzorum , the animal would not have look much like an elephant . It was just 1.6 to 2 foot ( 50 to 60 cm ) long and weighed 9 to 11 pounds ( 4 to 5 kg ) .
The animal ’s relation to elephants was determined via analysis of the specimen ’s teeth and skull . While it lacked a trunk , the animal had an hypertrophied first incisor , which researcher Emmanuel Gheerbrant of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris , France , say interpret a primitive tusk . It was much small-scale than the tusk oftoday ’s elephants .
" The trunk evolve with the modern elephant radical , send for elephantiform , at the offset of the Oligocene , " which extends from 33.7 million to 23.8 million yr ago , Gheerbrant toldLiveScience .
The fogey mammal was find out in the same area that yielded the then - oldest elephant relative calledPhosphatherium escuilliei , which date back 55 million years .
The newly identified coinage extends the record book of theProboscidea order(whose solitary survivor today are modern elephants ) back to the Late Paleocene .
The research , published in the June 22 consequence of the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , was financially patronise by the Collaboration Agreement with the Ministère de l’Energie et des Mines , the Office Chérifien des Phosphates of Morocco , Universities Cadi Ayyad ( Marrakech ) and Chouaîb Doukkali ( El Jadida ) .
