African elephant

African elephants are elephants of the genus Loxodonta from Greek λοξός (loxós 'slanting, crosswise, oblique sided') + ὀδούς (odoús, stem odónt-, 'tooth'). The genus consists of two extant species: the African bush elephant, L. africana, and the smaller African forest elephant, L. cyclotis. Loxodonta is one of two existing genera of the family Elephantidae. Fossil remains of Loxodonta have been found only in Africa, in strata as old as the middle Pliocene. However, sequence analysis of DNA extracted from fossils of an extinct elephant species undermines the validity of the genus