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An African elephant in Tanzania, with visible tusks. Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine teeth, as with narwhals, chevrotains, musk deer, water deer, muntjac, pigs, peccaries, hippopotamuses and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors.
The tusks of an elephant are specialized incisors for digging food up and fighting. Elephants are polyphyodonts whose teeth are similar to those of manatees, and it is notable that elephants are believed to have undergone an aquatic phase in their evolution. Elephants have four molars, one on each side of the upper and lower jaw. Until age 40 ...
Men with elephant tusks at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, c. 1900. The poaching of elephants for their ivory, meat and hides has been one of the major threats to their existence. [151] Historically, numerous cultures made ornaments and other works of art from elephant ivory, and its use was comparable to that of gold. [153]
A hefty set of tusks is usually an advantage for elephants, allowing them to dig for water, strip bark for food and joust with other elephants. Now researchers have pinpointed how years of civil ...
Antalis vulgaris, commonly known as the common tusk shell, is a species of scaphopods mainly encountered on sandy bottoms from 5 to 1000 meters depth. [ 1 ] Description
Dentalium elephantinum, the elephant tusk, is a species of scaphopod mollusc. Its shell is often deep green fading to white at its tip and has between eight and 17 strong ribs along its sides. Adults are about 70 mm in length with an diameter of about 11 mm at the shell aperture.
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is the same, regardless of the species of origin, but ivory contains structures of mineralised collagen ...
Kenyan wildlife officials plan to burn 105 tons of ivory at the end of April in a move they say will protect elephants.