簡介:"化石脊椎長鼻目亞洲象Current Asian elephant is the living proof of Elephas Linnaeus and many sorts of its fossil had been found. Current Asian elephant is the largest terrestrial mammal distributing in countries of South and Southeast Asia such as India , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Burma , and Yunnan Province of South China. There had been discoveries of Elephas Linnaeus fossil records of the middle and late Pleistocene in North and South mainland China. Like other sort of elephants, the male Asian elephant has a single "finger" on the upper lip of the trunk, a short, high skull and a double-bulged forehead. Asian elephants also have high crown molars with the chewing side of long oval shape, dense enamel and line structure. For centuries, people cultivated Asian elephants for hunting and transporting of goods and logs. In Southeast Asia , elephants also play an important role in both religious and cultural activities. In recent years, due to the man-made massacre and deforestation of tropic wood, the numbers of Asian plunges.亞洲象屬目前是以現生的亞洲象為代表,其中包括許多已成化石的種類。現生種的亞洲象是目前亞洲最大的陸棲哺乳類動物,棲息在南亞、東南亞等地,如印度、斯里蘭卡、泰國、緬甸及雲南南部均可見其分佈。而在中國大陸華北和華南的更新世中、晚期地層中,都曾有發現化石的紀錄。和其他種類的象一樣,只有公象的上頜有突出的門齒。其特徵為頭骨高而深,前額微凸。臼齒槽的深度較深,咀嚼面略成長橢圓形,琺瑯質層密集且有比較顯著的褶皺。 數世紀以來人們就馴養亞洲象,用以狩獵、馱運貨物和搬運樹木等。亞洲象在東南亞地區無論在宗教還是在文化上都扮演了重要的角色。近來由於人為的獵捕和熱帶森林的砍伐,它們的數量正在不斷地減少。"