Kingdom Animalia Subphylum Vertebrata Superorder Afrotheria | Phylum Chordata Class Mammalia Order Proboscidea | |
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Representative species Borneo elephant | ||
Pygmy elephants live in both Africa and Asia. The African pygmy elephant, formerly described as "Loxodonta pumilio", is currently considered to be a tiny morph of the African forest elephant (L. cyclotis).
The Borneo elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis), a well-documented variety of elephant, is also called "pygmy elephant." This elephant, inhabiting tropical rainforest in north Borneo (east Sabah and extreme north Kalimantan), was long thought to be identical to the Asian elephant and descended from a captive population. In 2003, DNA comparison revealed them to be probably a new subspecies.
The term pygmy elephant should not be confused with "dwarf elephant", which is used for a number of extinct species of elephants that evolved their size due to island dwarfing.
Rare pygmy elephant spotted
