Cerling Thure E, Harris John M, Leakey Meave G
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA e-mail:
George C. Page Museum, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA, , , , , , US.
Oecologia. 1999 Aug;120(3):364-374. doi: 10.1007/s004420050869.
The diet of extant elephants (Loxodonta in Africa, Elephas in Asia) is dominated by C browse although some elephants have a significant C grass component in their diet. This is particularly noteworthy because high-crowned elephantid cheek teeth represent adaptation to an abrasive grazing diet and because isotopic analysis demonstrates that C vegetation was the dominant diet for Elephas in Asia from 5 to 1 Ma and for both Loxodonta and Elephas in Africa between 5-1 Ma. Other proboscideans in Africa and southern Asia, except deinotheres, also had a C-dominated diet from about 7 Ma (when the C biomass radiated in tropical and subtropical regions) until their subsequent extinction.
现存大象（非洲的非洲象属、亚洲的亚洲象属）的饮食以C类植物为主，不过一些大象的饮食中C类草的成分也很显著。这一点尤其值得注意，因为高冠的象类颊齿代表着对研磨性放牧饮食的适应，而且同位素分析表明，在500万至100万年前，C类植被是亚洲象的主要食物，在500万至100万年前的非洲，非洲象属和亚洲象属的主要食物都是C类植被。非洲和亚洲南部的其他长鼻目动物，除了恐象，从大约700万年前（当时C类生物量在热带和亚热带地区辐射）直到它们随后灭绝，也都以C类为主食。
